


Shadows of the Nameless Empire

by Abderan_Sophist



Category: The Black Company Series - Glen Cook
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:47:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 37,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1401928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abderan_Sophist/pseuds/Abderan_Sophist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows Soulcatcher in the south, and assumes that she does not become less competent and more vicious as she spends more time in the south, the way she seems to do in canon (perhaps in this AU she is somehow resistant to Shivetya and Kina's influence); she acts more like she does in the first book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival and the First Rainy Season

**Jewel Cities** :

Soulcatcher heard almost immediately when the Black Company arrived in the city of Opal, on the south shore of the northern continent. She'd been hiding out there, slowly recovering from the attempt to kill her. Well, perhaps it was better described as a successful murder. She wasn't even quite completely alive again yet. She was reduced to carrying her own head around in a box, and her decapitated state significantly weakened her, though her magic preserved the condition of both her body and her head.

Since digging herself out of her grave, Soulcatcher had plundered various hidden caches of useful items. Mostly she retrieved items she'd left behind herself. Still, she'd been lucky enough to find a few belonging to other wizards who had fallen in the long war. One of the Eighteen had protected his hidden base with a talisman that repelled spirit walkers. Many wizards avoided spirit walking because of the risk that something might happen to one's body while one's spirit was out exploring. But for those who practiced it, spirit walking could be an excellent way to spy, and certain magical effects were easier to detect and influence in spirit form. Thus, being able to keep spirit walkers away was hardly useless. Still, the greatest prize was an imp who'd been surprisingly well bound to this world. Soulcatcher didn't bother giving the imp a nickname, but the Black Company wizard One-Eye would eventually call him Frogface. Frogface needed her help if he was ever going to go home, so Soulcatcher was easily able to arrange a reasonable deal for his services.

She also had other resources. Though her trick of reaching out and possessing minor wizards as a means of communication and intelligence gathering wasn't working very well (her weakened state reduced the range to the point where it was practically useless), another feat remained easily within the scope of her diminished abilities. She developed a habit of taking control of most of the local crow population wherever she went. She found the birds to be effective spies and messengers.

She'd slowly removed the effects of her sister's magic. Taken could rebuild themselves from almost anything. There were a tiny number of exceptions; Hanged Man, Limper, and Howler had all been cursed by the Dominator, and could never repair the damage that had done, even if they could repair lesser injuries. But Soulcatcher had only been cursed by her sister, and whatever she might think, Lady was never anywhere near as powerful as the Dominator. So the magical damage was now gone. Now all Soulcatcher needed was a surgeon, and the healing magic she'd studied up on during her long period of recovery, and she should be able to reattach her head and be as good as new.

The arrival of the Black Company triggered a lot of mixed feelings in Soulcatcher, and as usual this meant more than a little talking to herself. "They were very useful back in the day," she said in a serious voice.

"But they turned on me and murdered me," a child's voice complained.

"Well, Croaker did, anyway," a rich baritone commented.

"And he was acting on orders from my sister, who was the one I'd hired them to serve," the serious voice mused.

"Did I really expect Croaker to be able to say 'no' to my sister?" she asked in the voice of a very catty woman.

The one person argument continued at some length, but in the end the conclusion was that blame should really be placed where it belonged, on Soulcatcher's troublesome sister, the Lady, ruler of the empire. Besides, Croaker was an excellent surgeon.

Croaker was now the leader of the Black Company. He had been their physician and annalist when they had worked for Soulcatcher. They were very much diminished in numbers. The only other remaining members of significance seemed to be two minor wizards, a little old white man with an idiotic grin who was called Goblin, and an even older little black man with an eye patch who was unimaginatively called One-Eye. She'd usually communicated with Goblin when the Black Company had worked for her, but One-Eye was probably slightly more talented.

Soulcatcher noted with interest that all of the handful of survivors had become high-ranking imperial officers. Croaker was a general, and the two minor wizards were colonels; the men traveling with them also all held imperial commissions. Soulcatcher hadn't kept up on all of the developments in imperial politics, but she knew that a couple of years after the battle of Charm, the Black Company had turned against the Lady and her empire and become the personal bodyguard of the White Rose, the rebel leader. Much more recent, and much more confusing, reports had the White Rose finally defeated by the Lady's forces. Apparently the Black Company had managed to worm their way back into imperial favor quickly.

It wasn't initially clear what they were doing in Opal, but Soulcatcher had Frogface follow Croaker around, and one evening Frogface saw Croaker visit the Gardens, the most elite dining establishment in Opal. The interest in fine dining seemed out of character for him. No doubt it had to do with his very interesting guest. On the basis of Frogface's description, Soulcatcher quickly identified her as the Lady. The appearance of her sister in town piqued Soulcatcher's interest.

Frogface did not report that the woman was any kind of sorceress, and Soulcatcher's spying and scrying soon revealed a very surprising fact. Either her sister was doing an excellent job of concealing her powers, or her powers were somehow gone. As Soulcatcher continued to watch, and listen in when she could, it became increasingly clear that, extraordinary though this was, the latter was the case. This would make Soulcatcher's revenge much easier. Too easy, really; even in Soulcatcher's weakened state, killing an ordinary mortal was pretty much effortless. It wouldn't be any fun at all. So Soulcatcher didn't take any action, though she continued to observe.

Soulcatcher soon discovered that Croaker and Lady were planning to make off with her ship. Well, the empire didn't consider the ship to be hers, but Soulcatcher disagreed. The Dark Wings was an absurdly large galley with five banks of oars, almost three hundred feet long, and with a colossal sail bearing Soulcatcher's symbol, a fire-breathing skull with one empty eye and one eye of flame. A wooden ship the size of The Dark Wings would ordinarily leak so much it would need more men manning the pumps than the oars, and it would break apart in even slightly bad weather. The Dark Wings was only seaworthy because it was built more with sorcery than wood. Specifically Soulcatcher's sorcery. And she was a bit resentful at it being co-opted by others.

Any galley was always crowded, with the huge crew of rowers, but The Dark Wings was big enough to have a few hiding places, especially for a stowaway intimately familiar with the ship's magical structure. It was easy enough for Soulcatcher and her imp to tag along when The Dark Wings left port. It wasn't especially comfortable staying hidden for the duration of the crossing, but Soulcatcher had developed patience in her years buried under the Barrowlands.

The Black Company crossed the Sea of Torments, and disembarked at Beryl, on the north coast of the southern continent. Lady gave the captain of The Dark Wings a rather vague, open-ended mission. Soulcatcher briefly considered continuing to tag along with the ship. She could reclaim it, and with that mission it would be a long time before anybody missed it. The ship was an elegant way to get around. Of course, she'd have to find another surgeon besides Croaker, but that could certainly be done. Still, she remained strangely curious about Lady and Croaker's quest. Though she couldn't really explain why, even to herself, she instead chose to continue to watch and follow them southward.

 **Gea-Xle** :

Lady had brought several magically enhanced horses from Charm, so the Black Company moved quickly. At first, it wasn't easy for Soulcatcher to keep up with them, though her crows kept her informed of their movements. Soulcatcher wondered if she should have tried to steal one of those horses her sister had made, though a horse was much harder to conceal, and to feed, than an imp. Perhaps it was best to travel light. In any event, the Black Company stopped for several weeks at the Temple of Traveler's Repose, a stronghold of ancient scholars, which enabled Soulcatcher to catch up and even get a little ahead. She anticipated that if they were going to continue southward, they would want to follow the Great River, which they would meet at the city of Gea-Xle. Soulcatcher arrived at the city before the Black Company, and discovered that the residents of the city anticipated the Black Company's arrival.

Soulcatcher made preparations of her own. She sent Frogface to a local magic shop to speak the owner, while she set some subtle spells to ensure that One-Eye would wish to visit the shop.

Frogface popped into existence next to the shopkeeper. "So, want to make a bit of easy money?" he asked.

The shopkeeper was startled; he rarely saw magic that actually did anything significant. But he was quick to focus on what was important. "How much money? And what do I have to do?"

"It'll be the easiest money you ever made," the imp replied. "I'm going to hang around this shop for a few days, until an old wizard comes by to see what you have. He calls himself One-Eye, as he's got an eye-patch. He's a native of D'loc Aloc, and he's got an ugly, smelly hat; I'll make fun of his hat if you somehow don't recognize him and he doesn't introduce himself. All you need to do is sell me to him. I expect he has some clue what an imp can do, but you can mention that I can speak any language if he doesn't immediately jump at the opportunity. Whatever he pays, you get to keep, and I'll go off with him and you'll never see either of us again. Pure profit for you."

"Why do you want him to buy you?" the shopkeeper asked suspiciously.

"Will knowing that make you any more money?"

"Fair enough," the shopkeeper replied. "What should I tell him if he asks where I got an imp? None of my other stuff is remotely in the same league."

Frogface sighed. "Make something up. Be mysterious. Do you ever tell any of your other customers the truth when they ask you where you get your stuff? Why should this mark be any different? I told you this is easy money for you; don't turn it into something complicated."

The shopkeeper was a little uneasy. The imp was not merely more powerful but also a good deal more sinister than most of the goods that usually passed through his shop. But he expected he could get a very good price indeed, and after all he didn't know this One-Eye character and certainly didn't owe him anything.

While her imp was arranging to infiltrate the Black Company, Soulcatcher investigated the rest of the city. Someone called Eldron the Seer turned out to be the source of the predictions that the Black Company would come soon. He was an old man, with a young woman as his apprentice. Both he and his apprentice were northerners. In appearance, both were strangers, but something about Eldron seemed very familiar to Soulcatcher. By the time the Black Company arrived in town, she'd become almost completely convinced he was her old friend Shapeshifter. Soulcatcher had never found the reports of his death at the battle of Charm believable.

Between the reports from Frogface and from her crows, Soulcatcher was well-informed as the Black Company was enlisted to clear out some pirates who had blocked off river travel to the south. Eldron spent a lot of time talking to Lady, further strengthening Soulcatcher's suspicions as to his real identity. He was certainly someone Lady knew well.

Some of the locals signed up with the Black Company. These new recruits, who called themselves the Nar, were impressive warriors, but none of them had any magical talent so Soulcatcher didn't consider this development to be particularly important. Her main concern was avoiding attracting the attention of Eldron. If he was Shapeshifter, he might still be resentful about being pressured into helping with the murder of Hanged Man, and she wasn't feeling strong enough to defend herself against one of her fellow Taken yet.

The leaders of Gea-Xle hired the Black Company to clear out some pirates that were blocking river trade. Croaker was unenthusiastic about taking on missions that might distract from his quest, which was apparently to find Khatovar, the place where the Black Company had supposedly originated. But as Soulcatcher expected, Croaker wanted to follow the Great River southward, so he needed to get past the pirates anyway.

The Black Company was provided with a huge barge, and many merchants from the city planned to follow behind in smaller barges, optimistically hoping that this effort to break through would succeed. Eldron also boarded the main barge, so Soulcatcher decided to follow the Black Company in one of the smaller, following barges, since she still didn't want to be too close to maybe Shapeshifter. The smaller barges ended up following several hours behind, which worried her a bit; her crows kept her informed on how the lead barge was doing, but there was no way she could intervene if anything went wrong.

Fortunately, nothing did go wrong. After the pirates lost a couple of minor skirmishes, their leader took the field; from his power, and the noise he generated, it was clearly Howler, another of the old Taken. But Eldron dropped his disguise and joined in the fighting, and Shapeshifter's magic proved sufficient to chase Howler off. All of the barges made it to Thresh, the next major stop on the river.

 **Taglios** :

There was little additional excitement as the Black Company continued to make their way southward, though Frogface noticed one development of extreme interest. Lady seemed to be very slowly regaining her powers. A development that needed to be watched. Still, she was progressing at a snail's pace, so it did not seem to be urgent.

Soulcatcher went on ahead as quickly as she could, and found the situation in Taglios quite interesting. Apparently Taglios was under threat by a group of wizards called the shadowmasters. There were four of these shadowmasters, called Longshadow, Moonshadow, Shadowspinner, and Stormshadow. The last aroused Soulcatcher's suspicions, and further investigation confirmed that Stormshadow was almost certainly yet another of her old Taken friends, Stormbringer.

These shadowmasters were working together to conquer Taglios. Their long term goals were unclear; apparently they had spent a lot of time fighting one another in the past, and had only recently put aside their differences for the war against Taglios. In the previous year, the shadowmasters had launched a small, probing attack.

Taglios was ruled by a prince in early middle age, the Prahbrindrah. He had as yet no heirs, which seemed to have the potential to create problems in the future, but that only mattered if they survived the shadowmaster threat. He had an older sister, the Radisha, who seemed to have a great deal of influence over him. He also employed a respectable wizard, Smoke; nowhere near Soulcatcher's level, but well beyond Goblin and One-Eye in strength.

The three leaders of Taglios had seen how unsuccessfully others had tried to oppose the advance of the shadowmasters in the south, and Taglios had no military tradition that seemed to offer any better prospects. So they'd turned to foreigners to organize their defense. They'd found two deserters from the wars of the far north, Willow Swan and Cordy Mather, and another man that the two had met on their journey south (from Gea-Xle, perhaps? Soulcatcher couldn't identify his ethnicity precisely) who only called himself Blade. The three foreigners had remembered enough military tactics from the north that were unfamiliar in these southern lands to be able to lead an effective defense against the first, probing attack, but it was clear that the shadowmasters would send a much larger army this year.

Thus, the leaders of Taglios, who somehow also seemed to know that the Black Company was coming (probably thanks to Smoke), decided that their only option was to rely on more help from foreigners. They wanted to hire the Black Company to fight these shadowmasters. Smoke and the Radisha went upriver to intercept the Black Company and lead them to Taglios, and when they arrived in the city the Prahbrindrah tried to enlist them.

The Black Company relied on Frogface as a translator, so he was able to report to Soulcatcher in detail on the lengthy and tedious negotiations. Croaker didn't want to take on a contract, but he still wanted to go to Khatovar. Soulcatcher had still not been able to figure out why Croaker was so obsessed with this quixotic goal. Regardless, the shadowmasters were in the way. Thus, as with the pirates, Croaker found himself with no choice. Helping the Taglians with their war seemed to be the only way he could get past the shadowmasters.

The Taglian leaders weren't the only ones who had anticipated the arrival of the Black Company. Soulcatcher's crows told her of a small group of Longshadow's troops that had been sent to Taglios to capture Lady and/or Croaker. They were led by a small group of shadowweavers, minor magicians who served the shadowmasters. The shadowmasters were so-called because they commanded shadows, nasty magical creatures of darkness. Small shadows could spy and carry messages; larger shadows could kill. This group seemed to have mostly the small shadows. They also seemed to use bats as supplemental scouts and spies, so Soulcatcher had her crows begin a campaign of killing bats.

As if to make Longshadow's job easier, Croaker and Lady decided to go out scouting, escorted by only a handful of Black Company veterans. They rode the magical horses from Charm, which apparently gave them unjustified confidence that they could escape any trouble. Soulcatcher didn't want Longshadow capturing and questioning Lady.

She debated with herself at length about what to do. "It's probably for the best if my sister just dies," said the deep, chill voice of an assassin.

"But the shadowmasters are clearly up to something. I probably don't want them to succeed. And my sister might be able to interfere with their plans," a serious woman's voice pointed out.

"Besides, if she dies, how can I ever get my revenge on her?" a catty voice asked.

"Rationalizations!" a baritone voice complained. "How could it ever be best to leave someone alive when she knows my true name?"

"Since the battle in the Barrowlands, it seems that many people know my sister's true name," a scholar's voice pointed out. "Do I intend to kill all of them? And do I have any plan for how to do so? It's a short step from that to my name, after all."

"There are other ways of protecting myself," a deep, bass voice interjected. "Suppose I were to cease to be Soulcatcher? Perhaps I could even have others play the role. Then anyone who knew my name and tried to use it would be unpleasantly surprised!"

"And who cares if revenge on my sister is a petty goal? Who remains that is more powerful than me? If I want to be petty, who can stop me?" the catty voice asked.

"My power is still somewhat limited until I can get myself reassembled," the scholar's voice pointed out.

Though the voices couldn't come to any agreement, the argument eventually petered out, and Soulcatcher found herself working to save the Black Company from their impending disaster.

First, she sent flocks of crows to try to warn them. Unfortunately, Croaker figured out too late that Soulcatcher's crows were trying to divert him away from an ambush. The warning probably helped by making him more alert, but he and his companions still rode right up to the woods where Longshadow's troops were hiding. The shadowmaster troops jumped out to attack them, and confusion reigned; some of the Black Company fought, and some fled, scattering in all directions. The shadowmaster troops also split up, trying to pursue one or another of the escaping Black Company people. The weather also turned, as it began to rain off and on, reducing visibility and slowing travel. It wasn't clear whether the rain did more to help or hurt the Black Company.

Croaker got it into his head that he wanted to track down whoever was directing the crows, and this proved most inconvenient. Soulcatcher couldn't evade him, hide herself, and direct her crows as the situation demanded all at the same time, so he repeatedly came close to finding her by tracking the greatest concentrations of crows. Eventually she took an arrow, attached a note saying "It is not yet time, Croaker," and from hiding shot it past his ear into a nearby tree. He wasn't quite stupid enough to miss the obvious hint that she could have shot him dead if she'd wanted to, and he finally gave up the chase.

With Croaker no longer being a pest, Soulcatcher tracked down the shadowweavers. Goblin had also found them, but probably couldn't be counted on to handle them. The shadowweavers were minor wizards, but Goblin wasn't that impressive himself and there were six of them to only one of him. Further, the shadowweavers had their shadows, and any shadowmaster troops that might be close enough to join a fight. So Soulcatcher removed the danger to Goblin and eliminated the communication and scouting network of the shadowmasters by using a bit of her own sorcery to burn the shadowweavers to death.

This drastically reduced the effectiveness of the shadowmaster force, but Soulcatcher's crows told her that her sister, who had fled in another direction, was already surrounded by shadowmaster troops, and seemed to be in serious danger. Soulcatcher rushed to the scene, and found her sister unconscious and badly wounded. Soulcatcher slew the shadowmaster troops, making sure to use spells that were extremely loud and flashy. As she'd hoped, Croaker saw the display, even through the rain, and so quickly found Lady and was able to take care of her while Soulcatcher again faded away.

Frogface caught up with her the next day to report on the status of the company. "It looks like your sister will be fine. And surprisingly enough, you don't seem to have given yourself away. They think it must have been Shapeshifter who rescued Lady. Goblin claims personal credit for killing the shadowweavers, though the others suspect Shapeshifter is really responsible for that deed as well."

Soulcatcher laughed. "Of course, Shapeshifter will know something is going on if they ever thank him. But I doubt they will, and if the subject does come up, I doubt he'll mention that he wasn't the one. In any event, keep watching them, and as usual I especially want to know how my sister is progressing at getting her powers back."

"As you wish, oh Great One," Frogface replied, and vanished before Soulcatcher could scold him for his sarcastic tone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an alternate universe, but I haven't gotten to any of the significant departures from canon yet, which is why I've gone over events fairly quickly, mostly just retelling them from a Soulcatcher-centered perspective. One thing may be worth noting at the outset. If it were possible to use true names the way Cook describes at the end of The White Rose, they'd be used that way far more often. Since that would be inconvenient, and they aren't used that way on any other occasion even by Cook, that's one of the things that's changed in my universe. The effects of whatever happened at the Barrowlands are the same in my universe. Both Lady and Darling are stripped of power. But why it happened is different. True names are involved (and they're still powerful in my universe, just in more varied and usually more subtle ways), but also other factors, some of them unique, unprecedented, and unlikely to be repeated. That one of those involved in the events was a major magical null is probably one of the key, unlikely to be duplicated factors. As a result, wizards in general don't have to live in constant fear that they'll suddenly be rendered powerless by a simple incantation, though true names can still be used in enough other ways to make wizards highly motivated to keep them secret. Another result is that nobody really understands what happened to Lady. For all anyone knows, her slow recovery is what should be expected after what happened to her.
> 
> Also, I don't intend to do the disclaimer every chapter, as some people do, but might as well do it once. Of course the Black Company setting belongs to Glen Cook, and not to me, etc. etc. I recommend the original books; I wouldn't be doing this if there hadn't been so much that I liked about them. And I also like that Glen Cook is on record as having no objection to people writing fan fiction based on his work.


	2. Dry Season 1, part 1

**Main river** :

While Frogface continued to observe the activities of the Black Company, Soulcatcher's feathered spies scouted out the shadowmaster armies. They were camped south of a river called the Main, a large, swift-flowing river a few days south of Taglios which flowed into the Great River just as it entered the delta to the southwest. The Main flooded annually, and while flooding it was very difficult to cross; there were no bridges, and few boats, and it wasn't very safe for boats when the river was in flood anyway. So the shadowmasters were waiting for the flood to recede, at which point there would be four fords where the river could be crossed. The shadowmasters had armies waiting at each of the fords, with their largest force, 10,000 strong, at Ghoja, the ford closest to Taglios.

The rains were heavier and continued longer than usual that year, which seemed to be good news for the Black Company, since they needed all the time they could get to prepare. Soulcatcher wondered why Stormbringer wasn't trying to do anything about that, but perhaps getting rid of storms was more difficult than summoning them; Soulcatcher was not an expert on such magic. Admittedly, none of the other shadowmasters seemed to be putting in an appearance, so perhaps she was just hanging back from the front lines for the same reason as the others, whatever that reason might be.

Or perhaps it was that they had another plan. South of the Main, east of the Ghoja ford, there was a large flood plain, and the shadowmasters had been at work on an engineering project. They'd captured tens of thousands of prisoners in the wars, and had put many of them to work on a levy, which would in the future protect the plain from the Main's floods. While the land reclamation project seemed worthwhile enough, it was strange that the shadowmasters would make it a priority while the war continued. But Soulcatcher soon discovered why. The shadowmasters planned to flood the plain one last time, by building a dam across the Main to divert the river. This would drastically reduce the flow downstream of the dam, of course, and so would open the Ghoja ford several days early.

As Soulcatcher still felt that a complete shadowmaster victory was not an outcome she was looking for, she decided to warn Croaker of this development. The crows could mimic a short phrase, and so soon Croaker found himself being pestered by several of the birds, all occasionally saying "ignore the river." This time he paid more attention to the crows, and began to march his main army to the Ghoja ford early.

Even with the dam, the Ghoja ford would not be the first to open; the crossing at Numa would be open at least a day or two earlier. The shadowmasters had their second largest army there, obviously planning to cross and then march to Ghoja, where they could hit from behind while the Taglian defenders were facing the main shadowlander force. Croaker had sent a force gathered by one of the leading Taglian priests, Jahamaraj Jah, to Numa, and reinforced them with his cavalry, under the leadership of Lady.

While all this maneuvering was going on, Soulcatcher took the opportunity to get an updated report from Frogface.

"Croaker's been having me try to learn what the Taglians believe about company history, of all things. The Taglians think they need the Black Company, but they seem to be extremely suspicious of their saviors. They refuse to tell Croaker why, and they also refuse to tell him anything about Khatovar," the imp reported.

"I assume you've learned more," Soulcatcher commented.

"Yeah. What the Taglians believe is that the Free Companies of Khatovar were religious fanatics, servants of the goddess Kina, a goddess of death and destruction. The Free Companies slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in the service of their dark goddess. Supposedly it was this trauma that turned the region to pacifism, and so left them so unprepared for the shadowmasters."

"That doesn't make much sense," Soulcatcher commented. "The fall of the Domination certainly wasn't followed by any golden age of peace and harmony. Though it is true that these people seem stunningly ignorant of the ways of war. Perhaps the shadowmasters have been at work longer than people think, and started by influencing the local attitudes to make their conquests easier?"

"Could be, I'm just telling you what I've heard."

"Of course. So, what are the Taglians afraid of? That if the Black Company learns this history, they'll suddenly turn into Kina fanatics and start slaughtering indiscriminately again? Hardly seems likely."

The imp shrugged. "You're the expert on human motivations, not me. Anyway, listening to the Taglians talk among themselves about this Kina business, I did pick up one more thing. Apparently there's supposed to still be a cult of Kina worshippers in operation. A secret outfit. The practitioners are called Deceivers, and they honor their goddess by strangling people and hiding the bodies."

"Do these Deceivers really exist, or is this just part of the Kina legend?" Soulcatcher wondered.

"I thought you'd ask that! After hearing about them, I poked around, and managed to find a couple of characters who seemed to fit the description. And I followed them and watched them long enough to determine that they certainly think of themselves as Deceivers."

"How strange! You'd think a cult like that would be discovered and exterminated fairly quickly. They must have magical help. Maybe from one of the shadowmasters? It sounds like they've been scheming against one another for the past couple of decades; any one of them might have thought a secret army of assassins could be useful against the others."

"If so, the Deceivers don't seem to know who they're working for," the imp said. "Though there's no reason why they would. Probably more effective if they think they're working for a goddess than if they know they're working for an unpopular wizard."

"And you said you didn't understand human motivation. Well, lead me to one of these Deceivers. I have some questions for them."

Soulcatcher's interrogation of the Deceivers revealed that they didn't know much themselves, but one of them did know of an upcoming gathering of Deceivers for a religious festival, in a place they called the Grove of Doom. The festival was some months off, but it seemed that watching the festival would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about this cult.

**Ghoja** :

As Lady and Croaker had planned, Jahamaraj Jah's force combined with Lady's cavalry proved sufficient to hold the Numa ford. When the shadowlander troops had been routed, Lady was able to lead her cavalry to Ghoja quickly enough to join the defenders before the shadowlander army crossed. Jahamaraj Jah crossed at Numa, with orders to circle around and hit the shadowlanders at Ghoja from behind, mirroring the tactics the shadowlanders had initially planned, but he would not arrive in time to be a factor.

Lady had somehow found the time to make one other preparation of note for the main battle. She'd constructed two massive, hideous suits of plate armor, lacquered in black, for herself and Croaker. With One-Eye's help, she'd managed to build some minor enchantments into the suits, to make them tougher, and to make little flames dance around them. Lady called her character in the armor Lifetaker, and Croaker's armored character was Widowmaker. She hoped that the intimidating figures would scare the enemy and hearten their own troops.

It reminded Soulcatcher of how Lady had deployed her new Taken, Feather and Journey, at the battle of Charm, after most of the original Taken had fallen (or had seemed to fall, anyway). Lady tried to make it look like she had an unlimited supply of Taken, when really she only had those two in reserve, and they were pale imitations of the original Taken. But it had definitely had an effect on the rebel morale. Of course, Feather and Journey had been significant wizards, even if nowhere near original Taken level, while Lifetaker had little magic (Lady's recovery was still very slow) and Widowmaker none. But One-Eye and Goblin were given the task of making it look like there was something to them after all, and they were well-practiced at such illusions. Soulcatcher contributed to the effort by having a pair of crows perch on Widowmaker's shoulders. Many of the Taglians seemed disturbed by the appearance of the armor, especially Lady's armor, but it did also seem to give them confidence, and the display proved as intimidating as Lady could have hoped.

With Lady and Croaker's preparations, and with the shadowlander attack slowed by having to deal with fording the river, the shadowmaster army was decisively defeated. Soulcatcher didn't even have to give the Black Company any real help (the crows on Croaker's shoulders, which didn't do anything but watch, surely didn't count), though she saw that Shapeshifter helped them a little bit. Soulcatcher continued to watch as the Black Company followed up this victory by launching an immediate push south, marching for the city of Jaicur, the northernmost of the shadowmaster bases. Jaicur was ruled by Stormbringer, who called it Stormgard (and the Taglians called it Dejagore; Jaicur was what the natives called it, though as the fighting grew ever more brutal, there soon wouldn't be very many natives left).

It was two hundred miles from Ghoja to Jaicur, and although Croaker tried to move as quickly as possible to arrive before the shadowmasters had time to reinforce, the long march gave Soulcatcher time to follow up on what she'd learned from the Deceivers. The Grove of Doom was not far out of the way of the army's march, and Soulcatcher stopped by there to investigate.

The place had a faint but sinister aura, sufficient to keep most people away. At its heart was a fairly large temple, with statues and engravings that clearly showed its association with the Deceivers Soulcatcher had interrogated. The Deceivers themselves only visited the temple on their holy days, so it was unoccupied when Soulcatcher arrived, and would continue to be so for several weeks. The evil aura didn't bother Soulcatcher at all, so she decided to use the temple as a temporary base of operations; it was nice to have a place where she could get away from the weather and be sure nobody would disturb her while she worked and plotted. Unfortunately, the temple did not seem to contain many clues to the real motivation of the stranglers, though its existence seemed to indicate that the cult had significant numbers. Soulcatcher only had a few days to poke around before she had to make her way to Jaicur, to watch the Black Company fight shadowmaster armies led by actual shadowmasters. They might well need her help.

**Jaicur** :

Jaicur was in the center of a level plain that had been deliberately flattened in a vast engineering effort. The plain was surrounded by low, rolling hills. The city stood on a mound of earth 40 feet high, built from hills that had been leveled when the plain was cleared. Topping the edges of the mound were stone walls rising another 40 feet. Based on what Soulcatcher had learned about local history, the extravagant fortifications were almost certainly intended to protect Stormbringer against her rival shadowmasters; an attack from Taglios would be a surprise to her. But the defenses were equally strong in all directions, so the unexpected circumstances shouldn't have caused her any special difficulty.

Shadowspinner had brought up a huge army to support Stormshadow; they were apparently particularly close allies, but the shadowmaster alliance was also operating more smoothly than usual in the face of the Black Company threat. Moonshadow was bringing further reinforcements and was about to arrive, though as far as Soulcatcher could tell Croaker didn't know this. Not that she expected it would change his plans if he had known. He had anticipated that the shadowmasters would make some effort at reinforcement. That had been why he'd tried to move quickly after the victory at Ghoja.

Croaker's army had been swelled by the various freed prisoners and enthusiastic peasants who sought revenge against the oppressive shadowmaster tyranny. He also had Shapeshifter. Shapeshifter's motives for helping were not clear. According to Frogface, Lady and Croaker thought Shapeshifter wanted revenge on Stormbringer for her trying to kill him at the battle of Charm.

This made no sense to Soulcatcher. "Was it really even Stormbringer who tried to kill Shapeshifter at Charm?" a scholar's voice asked skeptically as Soulcatcher pondered the problem in her usual way.

"That was the report," said a young, know-it-all girl's voice.

"Well, Stormbringer had wanted Dominator to return, and Shapeshifter disagreed. It's possible that they fought over that," an older woman's voice offered doubtfully.

"But surely that's a dead issue now," the serious woman's voice that seemed to turn up most frequently interjected. "Since the most recent battle in the Barrowlands, there hasn't seemed to be any plausible way to revive the Dominator, and perhaps more importantly it doesn't seem that Stormbringer has even tried since the battle of Charm, which was many years ago. Why would Shapeshifter be reviving that feud now?"

"Does he need an excuse?" a catty woman's voice asked.

"Yes, he does," a man's deep bass voice insisted. "He must have something to gain. Howler was just as anti-Dominator, if not more so, but there's no sign of him rushing down here to attack Stormgard. In fact, he tried to stop Shapeshifter from coming here."

"Maybe Shapeshifter is just loyal to Lady?" a girl's voice offered.

"Was he more loyal than Howler? And yet no trace of Howler's loyalty seems to remain. If that's the reason, there's still something going on, either with Howler, or with Shapeshifter, or perhaps both, that I do not understand," the serious voice concluded.

The long march gave Soulcatcher plenty of time to think, but Shapeshifter's behavior remained a mystery. Still, Shapeshifter's presence did at least make the battle a more evenly matched affair. Croaker's forces attacked Shadowspinner's army almost immediately upon his arrival. They concentrated heavy missile fire on Shadowspinner himself. Shapeshifter worked to counter Shadowspinner's efforts at magic, blocking any attack on Croaker's armies and weakening Shadowspinner's defenses enough that some of the missiles managed to penetrate and wound him badly.

With Shadowspinner rendered ineffective, Croaker's army drove Shadowspinner's forces from the field. They retreated into their fortified camp. Rather than trying to assault the camp, Croaker turned his attention to the city.

Under cover of his wizards, and with a little unseen help from Soulcatcher, Croaker managed to infiltrate a few troops into Jaicur and open the gates. His army quickly overran the city. Frogface watched Stormbringer and Shapeshifter battle one another in Stormbringer's palace, and returned to his mistress when the excitement was over.

Frogface handed Soulcatcher the creepy staff that Shapeshifter always carried. It looked like an incredibly thin, elongated nude woman. It appeared to be extremely intricately carved, but the most popular story was that Shapeshifter had actually made it out of a living woman who had deeply disappointed him. "I found this lying around after the big fight between Shapeshifter and Stormbringer, and managed to grab it before anyone else noticed it. Well, Shapeshifter's apprentice might have noticed, but she seems to be stuck in beast form without her master. Some trick he left behind to keep her in line. Anyway, I figured you might want the staff," Frogface said.

"Very thoughtful," Soulcatcher answered. "I see you were paying attention when I promised to release you if your service was sufficiently exceptional." The staff wasn't a particularly potent weapon or anything, but it had been Shapeshifter's for centuries, and the bond it had to its master might make it useful to Soulcatcher. "At this rate, I may have to let you go before the year is out. How did the fight go?"

"They mostly killed one another," Frogface explained. "It took them a long time. The fighting was vicious. But when both Shapeshifter and Stormbringer were nearly dead, One-Eye knocked them unconscious..."

"With a spell?" Soulcatcher couldn't believe any magic One-Eye could do could affect one of the Taken.

"No, with a club," Frogface continued. This made Soulcatcher even more puzzled, but he pressed on. "Then they thoroughly bound the both of them, burned them to ashes, ground the ashes to dust, and scattered the dust. Lady's suggestion."

"Being hit on the head knocked a Taken unconscious? Rather, two of them? Something strange is definitely going on. And my sister suggested the burning plan? If it were that easy, the White Rose would have done that to all of us after the Dominator fell," Soulcatcher commented.

"Well, it's never been done before. For all anyone knows it might work," the scholar's voice suggested. Soulcatcher wasn't paying any more attention to Frogface, focusing instead on her own speculations. "The rebels just weren't certain of it, so they went another way."

"Possibly," the serious voice admitted. "But my sister can't be certain of it either. Or at least she shouldn't be. Unless she thinks that since the Dominator has been more thoroughly defeated, we Taken might not be quite as immortal as we once were? I seem to be proof to the contrary, but she wouldn't know that."

"Maybe she just wanted them out of the way temporarily. Might take decades for either of them to figure out a way to return to the world after something like that," the baritone man's voice offered.

"Or whatever weakened them enough to make them vulnerable to One-Eye might be able to prevent them from ever returning," whispered the voice of death.

"This is not the important question. At least I don't think it is." Soulcatcher sounded lost, for once. "It might be. It might all be connected. But neither of them lived to be great wizards by seeking out fair fights. I don't care what feud there was between them, why would they have it out with one another under circumstances like that?"

"And why did my sister encourage the attempt to destroy Shapeshifter? Did she get tired of the smell?" the catty voice asked.

"Another excellent question," a new, male voice contributed. "Makes it seem more likely that she didn't expect it to work."

Frogface interjected at this point, "I heard something about One-Eye blaming Shapeshifter for killing his brother."

"Why would my sister care about that?" Soulcatcher asked dismissively. But another of her voices offered, "Croaker probably cares about that. And maybe my sister cares more than she should what Croaker thinks."

"Enough to leave herself with no serious magical support, with three very high powered sorcerers still opposing her? She has seemed awfully smitten with Croaker, but could she really be that stupid?"

"I'm just reporting what I heard," Frogface said. "Lady seemed to think Shapeshifter was just using her to get to Stormbringer, and that he couldn't be trusted once Stormbringer was dealt with."

"With the shadowmasters still out there, surely the smart play would be to take the chance and hope Shapeshifter was loyal," Soulcatcher insisted. "Or at least that he had more of a plan than just killing Stormbringer, a larger plan that would still need her. The revenge on Stormbringer motivation for Shapeshifter doesn't really make sense anyway; why would my sister be so confident of it?"

"Well, she always used to be able to see into anyone's soul with that terrifying eye of hers," a naughty girl's voice contributed. "Maybe she's out of practice reading people any other way, so without her magic she's misjudging their motivations."

"A pleasant theory," the serious voice admitted. "But there have been so many signs that there is something deeply wrong. Something going on that I'm just not seeing. Most likely, this is another piece of that puzzle. But still not enough to make it any clearer."

"Maybe one of the other shadowmasters was manipulating things, trying to get rid of their rival Stormbringer and their enemy Shapeshifter at the same time?" another voice offered.

"They'd have to be awfully powerful. None of the shadowmasters have seemed that strong to date. But maybe. It's all still just guesswork!" Soulcatcher was petulant. Frogface popped out to resume his scouting, hoping she'd be in a better mood later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those familiar with canon will know that some of the things which puzzle Soulcatcher are explained eventually. Or at least hints of explanations turn up. But some things are never explained at all, and we are occasionally reminded that in canon we are relying on unreliable narrators. I should perhaps mention that this is true here as well; like canon, this chronicle has a fictional author, one who tries to insert himself into the narrative less than the Black Company annalists usually do but who does have his own biases and limitations (he is, like a Black Company annalist, willing to speculate about what certain characters might be thinking and feeling, but as with a Black Company annalist it shouldn't be assumed that he's always right when he does this). It should be obvious by now that this narrator is someone close to Soulcatcher. It's not a character who has made an appearance yet. It will probably be obvious when he does so, though he will follow the tradition of Julius Caesar and write about himself in the third person in his own chronicle.
> 
> While I will have the "narrator screwed up" excuse available for plot holes, as Cook does, I do intend to try to minimize such plot holes as much as possible (my narrator is very careful), so if anybody spots any big holes, I'd love to hear about them in reviews so I can try to patch them (or explain them later; finding ways to explain things that seem initially not to make sense is a fertile source of plot).


	3. Dry Season 1, part 2

**Jaicur** :

Croaker and Lady were given little time to celebrate their victory over Stormbringer. The next day, Moonshadow arrived with his reinforcements, and joined up with Shadowspinner's army.

The new sorcerer proved only a little more effective than Shadowspinner. It was clear to Soulcatcher that either the two were not Taken, or something was hindering their abilities (or both, of course).

Croaker's managed to largely neutralize Moonshadow by charging him with war elephants, and the shadowmaster completely ceased to be a factor after the standard bearer Murgen impaled him with the Black Company standard. Moonshadow's reaction to the lance suggested that the ancient weapon had some very powerful magic in it, magic that must also be quite well concealed for Soulcatcher never to have noticed it before. She filed this away in her mind as yet another thing for her to investigate down the road. In any event, incapacitating Moonshadow was not enough to give the Black Company the advantage; the shadowmasters had much more experienced troops, and with magic largely removed from the battlefield, that proved to be the decisive difference. The shadowmaster army steadily gained the upper hand.

Soulcatcher hid herself among the shadowlander troops, and took a very careful bow shot at Croaker, inflicting an incapacitating but, she hoped, survivable wound on the Black Company's captain. She then waited for the fighting to move away from her position, and was able to slip away, taking with her the badly injured Croaker, as well as Moonshadow, who was still impaled on the Black Company's standard.

She removed Moonshadow's mask, and confirmed that he was not one of the Taken. He was wholly unfamiliar.

"It has been centuries since I've done anything to live up to my name," an assassin's voice whispered.

"For good reason," the serious voice said.

"Perhaps. New memories are distracting, but surely I'm comfortable enough with those I have now, after all this time," a greedy shopkeeper's voice said. "I haven't lost control for a long time, at least when it mattered. Surely I can handle one more?"

"And think of what he might know!" the scholar's voice added.

"I can't turn down an opportunity to increase my power, with so many threats about," the bass voice concluded.

So, making certain that Croaker was unconscious (though also making certain that he was still alive), Soulcatcher dredged up her memories of the ancient spells, and summoned Moonshadow's spirit out of his body, then carefully bound it and added it to her collection. In her weakened state, the ritual took a very long time, but nothing seemed to go wrong.

When Croaker awakened, Soulcatcher made a bit of a show of burning the empty husk of Moonshadow and dusting and scattering the ashes, as Lady had done with the two Taken, though she couldn't tell if Croaker had any real awareness of his surroundings in his wounded delirium.

Accessing Moonshadow's memories wasn't trivial, and some things were always lost (or just unreliable; a captured soul could only tell her what it believed, and of course often what the souls believed was only loosely connected to reality). But Soulcatcher now found herself knowing quite a bit more about the shadowmasters. Their shadows came from a mysterious ancient site far to the south, the plain of glittering stone. Longshadow was the one who was able to bring shadows through the shadowgate, and he supplied them to the other shadowmasters and to the shadowweavers, the minor wizards trained by the shadowmasters. The other shadowmasters had all apparently believed that Longshadow considered them expendable, and were always looking for a chance to get rid of Longshadow and take control of the shadow supply themselves. It seemed that Longshadow had the upper hand in that game, as there was now only one other badly wounded shadowmaster left.

Soulcatcher was disturbed to discover that the shadowmasters had known of her arrival in Taglios. If they were keeping track of her, she needed to pay more attention to her security. Of course, getting herself fully restored would help greatly with that.

The shadowmasters had also been in touch with Howler. It was under their orders that Howler had tried to block the Black Company's southward journey. That hadn't worked out very well for them, but it was worth noting that the shadowmasters and Howler were in contact. It was always possible that Longshadow might want to lure Howler out of the swamp, to restore some of the sorcerous strength his side had lost with the fall of Moonshadow and Stormbringer.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Moonshadow knew nothing helpful about most of the larger mysteries that puzzled Soulcatcher, thought that was itself an interesting fact. He had nothing to do with the Deceiver cult, and if one of the other shadowmasters did, he didn't know about it. And as far as Moonshadow knew, the region's strangely peaceful ways pre-dated the shadowmasters; they had taken advantage of the native pacifism, but hadn't created it.

Moonshadow's magical skills were considerably inferior to Soulcatcher's in most areas, though there were a few tricks she would learn from him, especially when it came to manipulating shadows. In addition to being better able to defend herself, she ought to be able to capture and take control of some of them with the knowledge she stole.

Once she was done with Moonshadow, Soulcatcher took Croaker back to the strangler temple, where she patched him up as best she could. He recovered quickly with the help of some of the healing magic that Soulcatcher had been studying to aid in her own recovery, and soon he was lucid again.

"Where am I?" Croaker asked, looking around at the strange, dusty room, before focusing on the even stranger apparition that was watching him. He'd seen the figure before in his delirium, but now he could more clearly make out a figure in robes, hooded, carrying a box. The box contained a head, with a familiar-looking face.

"This is a Deceiver temple, but they're not using it at the moment so I'm borrowing it," Soulcatcher responded. "I rescued you from the battle. Awfully nice of me, don't you think, given your role in producing my current condition?"

"And what is your current condition, exactly, beyond the obvious? No, never mind, I wouldn't understand an explanation of the magic. How did the battle go?"

"I'm afraid that although you successfully took out Moonshadow and Shadowspinner was not a factor, the shadowlanders had numbers and experience. The outcome might have been different if you'd still had Shapeshifter, but as it was your army was quite badly beaten. Many of them managed to retreat into Jaicur, including Mogaba, Murgen, Goblin, and One-Eye, to mention a few I expect you'll be especially interested in. They're still there, being besieged by Shadowspinner."

"And Lady?" Croaker asked nervously.

"My sister is fine, I fear. She managed to escape the battle, and is starting to build a new army. She thinks you are dead, so she's declared herself captain. Of course, Mogaba also thinks you are dead, and has also declared himself captain. It will be interesting if the siege of Jaicur is lifted. Though at this point it seems Shadowspinner has the upper hand."

Though he was relieved to hear that Lady was alive, the rest of the news disturbed Croaker greatly. "And why am I here? What do you want from me?"

"It's very simple. I'm quite fond of my body, and this head," she raised the box, "but while my magic has kept both of them from decaying, they really work best together. I need the help of a trained surgeon to reunite them. And it only seems fair that you should do the job, to make up for your role in separating them in the first place."

After giving Croaker a few more days to more fully recover, Soulcatcher insisted that it was time for Croaker to carry out the surgery. Frogface also kept watch, to ensure that Croaker didn't attempt any treachery, but as Soulcatcher was conscious for the operation that was unlikely in any event. Soulcatcher experienced great pain as Croaker scraped away scar tissue, but she managed to keep her attention focused on the need to cast healing spells to help seal up the connections Croaker was making between her head and neck. In the end, there was some scarring, but other than that the operation left Soulcatcher fully restored. She also noticed that her appearance seemed to have some effect on Croaker, perhaps because she reminded him of her sister. This gave her further ideas.

After Soulcatcher had had a few days to recover from the surgery, Croaker confronted her. "It's obvious that the surgery has been a success. You don't need me for anything else, do you?"

"In a hurry to return to Lady?" Soulcatcher asked, in an extremely sultry voice. "Am I not an adequate substitute?"

Croaker wasn't foolish enough to answer that. "So I'm a prisoner?"

"I'm still very unhappy with my sister, I'm afraid. Being decapitated and left for dead, and years of painful struggle to get back to health, have left me a little bitter." She laughed merrily. "My sister seems most upset at the thought of your death, so I prefer for now that she should continue to believe that you are dead, and so continue to suffer."

Of course it occurred to Croaker one way that Soulcatcher could ensure that, and she laughed again as she guessed his thoughts. "No, I'm not going to kill you. Really, didn't you know that I've always been fond of you? Another reason I don't want you going anywhere, at least until we've had a chance to spend some time together."

In subsequent days, Soulcatcher continued her intelligence gathering, sending Frogface and her crows to keep track of Jaicur and of Lady's activities. Croaker frequently asked her what was going on, and she happily kept him informed. She liked having someone to talk to other than herself, and she thought Croaker was warming up to her a bit as well. She'd read the first book of Croaker at one point. While it had entirely too much for her tastes about how overwhelmingly beautiful and charming Lady was, it seemed that Croaker had had more than a little respect for Soulcatcher as well, and she hoped to build on that.

"Lady has some of the Deceivers working for her now," Soulcatcher explained to Croaker when he asked for one of his updates. "They're the cultists who built this temple. Apparently when she's in her Lifetaker armor, she looks like an avatar of their goddess Kina. She's using the Deceivers as officers and spies as she organizes a new army."

Soulcatcher shook her head. "Those Deceivers are not nice people. They acquire status among themselves by the number of innocent victims they've secretly strangled. Just Lady's kind of people, I suppose."

Croaker wasn't thrilled at this news, but the Black Company had always done whatever was necessary to survive. "If she needs these Deceivers to help her build a force to relieve Jaicur, I'm sure she knows what she's doing."

"Oh, no doubt," Soulcatcher agreed. She didn't want to be too unsubtle in undermining her sister, though Croaker surely would suspect her motives in any event. "Not much change in Jaicur, I'm afraid," she went on. "Though perhaps that's good. Shadowspinner doesn't seem to be recovering. I think Longshadow has put some sort of curse on him to keep him weak. And without Shadowspinner's magic, his army would have a very hard time dealing with those fortifications, so he's just maintaining the siege."

**Howler** :

Longshadow did indeed contact Howler upon learning that he had lost Stormbringer and Moonshadow. Initially, the little wizard was reluctant to leave the empire he'd built up in the swamps, but he could see how powerful and useful the shadows were, and eventually he decided that he needed to learn more about that magic. After all, someone might try to use it against him in the future. So he agreed to join the shadowmasters. He took more than a hundred of his best warriors with him. It meant he couldn't travel by carpet, but he would feel safer with a bodyguard of trustworthy men.

Moving such a large body of men proved challenging, but with his efforts they were able to take back ways and slip through Taglian territory mostly undetected. No reports of his passage made their way to Taglios until long after he'd gone by. But Soulcatcher saw him, and intercepted him for a brief chat.

"A strange time to be joining the cause of the shadowmasters, when they seem to be in decline," Soulcatcher commented. "What will you call yourself? Shadowwail, perhaps? Or, better, Moanshadow?"

"I had heard that you were around. What interest do you have in the shadowlands?"

"I haven't really decided yet," Soulcatcher answered. "Though I know I don't like the shadowmasters much. Longshadow seems to be getting a bit too powerful, with his shadows and that invincible fortress he's building."

"Which is precisely why neutrality no longer seems to be a good option. If I'm close to Longshadow, I'll know what he's up to, and I'll be more likely to be able to protect myself."

"I'm glad you have a reasonable assessment of how trustworthy he is."

"The fates of Stormbringer and Moonshadow, and how little Longshadow did to help them, could hardly escape my notice."

"Have you noticed what's going on with Shadowspinner?" Soulcatcher asked. "He was wounded in battle, but his failure to recover is entirely due to Longshadow worrying that he might become a threat."

"That I did not know."

"Confirm it for yourself."

"If Longshadow is keeping Shadowspinner crippled, he's no doubt also keeping a close watch on him. Visiting him will look suspicious."

"True enough. Fortunately, you have friends." Soulcatcher laughed and continued. "I will distract Longshadow for a time, so you can have your discussion with Shadowspinner."

"Why do you wish to help me?"

"I told you, I don't like Longshadow much. It will be helpful to have a friend close to him. I'll signal you when the distraction is ready." Soulcatcher departed, leaving Howler to contemplate the complexities of the situation.

Longshadow liked to work atop the highest tower in his fortress of Overlook, in a room with huge windows to let in the sun. He always preferred to have as much light around as possible, to weaken the shadows. In addition to the windows, the room had an assortment of artificial lights, both magical and mundane. It was there that he summoned his shadows, with a powerful orb that had a mystical connection to the shadowgate. Soulcatcher had had her crows watching him since she arrived in the South.

When Howler stopped for the night near Jaicur, Soulcatcher sent a larger than usual body of crows to watch Longshadow, with one carrying a prepared spell. As he often did, Longshadow began to summon shadows to send off on missions. The crows cawed to distract him, and it occurred to him that crows were not normally out at night. He tore himself away from his summoning to deal with the crows, and as they scattered or were killed, Soulcatcher's prepared spell went off. At first he didn't notice, as he was too busy trying to get rid of the crows.

Soon, though, he saw a shadow escaping from his orb. He quickly raised his defenses and tried to grab control of the shadow, but it fled the fierce sorcerer in his brightly-lit room, slipping down the stairs into the bowels of the fortress. There was no telling how many of Longshadow's most valuable minions a loose shadow could kill, so Longshadow had no choice but to immediately set out to hunt down the rogue. Of course, while engaged in this hunt he had no opportunity to check in with Shadowspinner. A crow visited Howler and said simply "it's time."

Not knowing how much time he had, Howler hastened to Shadowspinner's camp. Shadowspinner was not doing well, and Howler inquired about his injuries.

"It was mostly the Black Company's ballistas, though I think Shapeshifter was doing something to weaken my defenses, so I couldn't deflect the bolts. Nobody was hurling spells at me, though."

"You should have recovered more by now," Howler commented. This wasn't necessarily true; if he were Taken, he would surely be fine by now, but Howler didn't really know exactly how powerful a sorcerer Shadowspinner was. Still, best to assume he was reasonably powerful, and not insult him. He was a shadowmaster, after all.

"Yes, I should have," he said somewhat evasively.

"This is something Longshadow's done, then?" Howler asked.

Shadowspinner sighed, and then coughed in pain. "No point in lying, I suppose. If you're loyal to Longshadow, you're a fool, but there's nothing I can do to stop you doing anything you want to me at this point. So I have to hope you're not a fool. Longshadow cursed me to slow my recovery. He wants me just strong enough to keep the Black Company away from him, but not strong enough to actually win and potentially be in a position to turn on him."

Howler howled. All was as Soulcatcher had said. Working for Longshadow was looking less appealing. But he didn't want to just turn back. "I am no fool. And I can see that Longshadow did little to prevent the deaths of Moonshadow and Stormbringer. Almost as if he welcomed the elimination of his rivals. Let me see your injuries."

Howler removed Longshadow's nasty spells from Shadowspinner, and also performed some minor healing magic. "It's probably best that Longshadow not know you're feeling better. Then when he tries to betray one of us, we can surprise him."

"Thank you," Shadowspinner replied. "You can count on my support when the time comes."

Howler knew better, of course, but still it was probably better for him that Longshadow have more to worry about. He made a pretense of trusting his new maybe ally, and then rushed off to continue his journey to Overlook, hoping that Soulcatcher's distraction had worked.

**Grove of Doom** :

Soulcatcher returned to the Grove after assisting Howler. Along the way, she'd managed to locate a couple of the horses of Charm. They would be very useful, and they would presumably not be missed. Lady would assume they'd been lost in the battle for Jaicur.

Croaker wanted updates on events, and Soulcatcher filled him in on what her spies had been telling her. "Lady's army grows in strength. Jahamaraj Jah, that priest who was playing at being a general, was plotting against her, and she had her stranglers kill him. Since then, she's been getting less opposition from the Radisha and the priests."

"Sounds like those Deceivers have been necessary, then," Croaker commented.

"I suppose. That Blade fellow has now joined her as well. A very good looking man. The Radisha was most displeased."

"Why would she care?" Croaker asked.

"Well, she doesn't seem to trust my sister. Sensible of her. So she's been having Willow Swan and Cordy Mather continue to work independently trying to raise troops. She wanted Blade to do the same, but Blade apparently finds Lady more attractive than the Radisha."

"Blade seemed to be competent. More good news, I'd say." Croaker tried to ignore Soulcatcher's hints.

"Bad news from Jaicur, on the other hand. You said you saw Howler pass by a few days ago?" Soulcatcher asked.

"Yes, that's right. I assume your crows have been watching him?"

"Of course. Sometimes Frogface as well, though I like to get detailed reports from Ghoja, and even he can't be in two places at once. Howler is going to join up with Longshadow, of course, but on the way he stopped by Shadowspinner's camp at Jaicur."

"That's not good," Croaker observed.

"Well, it could be worse. With Howler's help, I'm sure Shadowspinner's troops could have just taken the city. But apparently Longshadow expected him to go directly to Overlook and report in. Still, something almost as bad for your friends happened."

"Go on," Croaker said.

"Nearly all the remaining armies of the shadowlands are now under Shadowspinner's command. Longshadow doesn't trust this situation, so he's been keeping Shadowspinner crippled, fearing that if Shadowspinner were to recover his strength and recapture Jaicur, his next move would be to move against Longshadow rather than fighting Taglios as he's supposed to. Such trust among the shadowmasters!"

"Yes, you've talked about Shadowspinner's condition before. What of it?"

"Well, Howler seems to have fixed it. Howler won't want Longshadow to know that and Shadowspinner probably doesn't want to betray his new ally immediately. And anyway, turning against Longshadow won't seem like such a clever move for Shadowspinner when Howler's around and it's uncertain which way he'll go. So Shadowspinner will probably try to conceal his good health for a bit. But eventually he is bound to make a serious attempt to take Jaicur, and Goblin and One-Eye won't be nearly enough to stop his sorcery."

"Is there any chance that he'll wait long enough for Lady to get there with reinforcements?" Croaker asked.

"There is always a chance, I suppose. But the shadowmasters do have spies of their own. Shadowspinner will probably see her coming days in advance. Plenty of time to attack Jaicur before she arrives. No, if you want to save your friends, I think you're going to need my help. Fortunately, as I've said, I'm quite fond of you." Soulcatcher stroked Croaker's arm. "And I have a plan."

Soulcatcher departed the Grove for a few days, leaving her crows to keep an eye on Croaker. She sent Frogface into Jaicur to steal the Widowmaker armor from Murgen. Murgen had taken it from Croaker after Croaker fell, and had tried to rally the troops by putting it on himself. While Frogface was engaged in this theft, Soulcatcher located a smithy, and with the coerced help of the smiths, and some help from her magic to speed things up, she built her own version of the Lifetaker armor.

Enchantment was something Soulcatcher was good at; her version of the Lifetaker armor was much sturdier than what One-Eye and her greatly weakened sister had been able to cobble together. But it would be far more important who was wearing it. She also repaired the minor damage to the Widowmaker armor, when Frogface delivered it to her. She returned to the temple with both suits of armor.

"My sister's on her way to Jaicur," Soulcatcher told Croaker. "She grew frustrated with being obstructed by the priests in Taglios, and arranged a meeting with several hundred of them at which she had them all killed. Naturally, she's worried about the effect that this will have on the morale of her more religious troops, so she's having her forces march southward, hopefully fast enough that rumors of the slaughter of the priests won't catch up with them."

"And she's naturally sent the soldiers who actually killed the priests on a mission somewhere else, so they can't spread the rumor," Croaker observed.

"You understand her better than I thought! Still, she will certainly be very late. It will be nearly three weeks before she could possibly make it, and indications are that Shadowspinner will attack in a couple of days."

"Fortunately, there's my plan." Soulcatcher showed the armor to Croaker. "Lifetaker and Widowmaker are going to ride to the defense of Jaicur. And this time Lifetaker is going to be strong enough to do some real damage, since she will, of course, be me." She also gave Croaker back the Black Company lance. Her investigations had failed to reveal anything about its magic, but given what it had done to Moonshadow, she thought it might be useful to have it in action if anything went wrong.

Croaker was extremely suspicious of Soulcatcher's motives in being so helpful, but he very much didn't want Shadowspinner killing his friends in the city, so he went along with her plan without complaint. They rode to Jaicur, and thanks to Soulcatcher's careful timing they arrived just as Shadowspinner was finally unleashing an assault on the city.

Shadowspinner's troops initially used ramps and grapnels to try to storm the walls, but with little success. Then Shadowspinner began building up a massive sorcerous attack. A looming cloud seemingly composed of shadows bound together by threads of magic rose up over him, and began to stretch itself toward the city. His troops pulled back from their attack, hoping the magic would kill off some of the defenders and make their job easier.

Soulcatcher and Croaker watched from the hills overlooking the plain. A pink thread of sorcerous power stretched out from Soulcatcher, toward Shadowspinner's camp. When it reached the shadowmaster, his cloud of shadow magic began to collapse in on itself. It faded to nothing, far more swiftly than it had originally grown.

The enraged shadowmaster ordered his army to resume the assault on the walls, while he took a force of cavalry to attack Soulcatcher and Croaker. They led him on a fruitless chase, with Soulcatcher effortlessly deflecting the spells he sent against them, and frequently lobbing back spells that killed many of the shadowmaster's cavalry. Eventually, Soulcatcher tired of the game, and taking advantage of their vastly superior horses, she and Croaker escaped the pursuit.

In the mean time, without magical support, the assault on the city had not gone well for the shadowlanders. Shadowspinner lost many troops in the fruitless assault, and more to the skirmishers that Mogaba sent out to counter-attack. Goblin and One-Eye also did their bit; their small sorceries could be quite damaging when unopposed. By the time Shadowspinner had returned to the battlefield, the fighting was over, and he didn't have enough troops left to attempt another assault. And though he didn't yet know this, Lady would reach him before he could acquire any further reinforcements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It did always frustrate me that nowhere in the books did Soulcatcher ever live up to her name. All of her soul catching was apparently in the distant past. It isn't hard to think of good reasons why she would be extremely reluctant to use that power; perhaps there are limits to how many times it can be used without causing problems (limits which she showed signs of having already exceeded; indeed, it wouldn't be surprising if the only totally safe number of times to perform the ritual was zero). But I really wanted her to capture at least one soul.


	4. Dry Season 1, part 3

**The Festival of Lights** :

As Lady's army moved southward, her strangler allies insisted that she make a small detour. It was time for the Festival of Light, and they wanted her to attend. Soulcatcher had many crows watching the event. Unfortunately, it proved a little bit anti-climactic. Lady was able to tell that someone had been living in the temple, despite Soulcatcher's best efforts to clean up. When she informed the Deceivers, they postponed the festivities so that the temple could be purified.

Still, the crows reported a few interesting snatches of conversation. Lady said Kina came to her in her dreams. Did she mean that literally? Could Kina be an actual being, and not just a myth? Of course she could just be trying to impress the Deceivers.

More importantly, the stranglers did subject Lady to one test that apparently didn't need to be postponed. A strangler tried to ambush her. She was able to turn the tables on him, and after she killed him she used his blood in a little ritual to place a mark on each of the other stranglers, permanently staining their hands red.

It seemed to greatly impress, or perhaps intimidate, the stranglers. Soulcatcher wasn't sure of the wisdom of it, as it seemed to endanger the secrecy of the Deceivers, but perhaps Lady didn't care. She might have had doubts about the long-term prospects for her strangler alliance anyway.

 **Howler** :

Howler found Longshadow's two-thirds finished fortress a little disturbing. Overlook was immense; where the walls were finished, they were a hundred feet high, and faced with metal plates engraved with powerful runes. The fortress throbbed with magic, and suggested an obsessive, single-minded builder. The outside of the fortress was crawling with workers, as construction continued, but while substantial parts of the interior had been finished, few people seemed to live inside. The garrison was tiny.

Almost as soon as he arrived, Howler had an assignment from Longshadow.

"I've been in contact with the wizard Smoke, the court wizard of Taglios. He has expressed some interest in helping me deal with the Black Company. He's agreed to meet with me, so I need you to use one of your carpets and go retrieve him."

Flying to Taglios took Howler less than a day, though it was quite tiring to fly so far without breaks. He did feel the need to sleep for a few hours before returning; fortunately, it took a while for Smoke to get away from the palace anyway. The return flight left Howler completely exhausted, so he did not participate in Longshadow's initial meeting with Smoke.

When Howler had rested, he went to watch Longshadow at work. His opinion of his new ally dropped. Longshadow was trying to break Smoke, to turn him into some feeble mockery of a Taken. It was clear that he didn't know what he was doing, and that persuasion would have been faster and easier anyway. But Howler kept his comments to himself. Longshadow wouldn't listen.

After a few days, Longshadow was finally satisfied that he could completely control Smoke, and so Howler had to carry him back to Taglios. He wondered how Smoke would explain the long absence.

When Howler returned to Overlook again, Longshadow immediately demanded his help in contacting his new slave. The update proved to be all bad news. It appeared the Prahbrindrah and the Radisha were losing trust in their wizard.

"You should have seduced him," Howler opined, no longer inclined to hold his tongue. "It would have been faster, so he wouldn't have been gone such a suspiciously long time. And it wouldn't have made him behave suspiciously. You are too fond of brute force."

"Don't tell me how to..." Longshadow snarled, before restraining himself. He really couldn't treat Howler like a minion, however much he might despise the filthy pile of rags. "Never mind. We should assess the situation in Stormgard."

The two combined their magic to reach out to Shadowspinner. Since Jaicur was closer than Taglios, either could have performed this contact alone, but the two combined made the connection swiftly and strongly. Once again it was all bad news. Shadowspinner had lost another four thousand troops fighting against Lady's newly arrived reinforcements. He was being forced to fall back on a last resort plan to keep the situation under control. He was diverting nearby rivers to flood the plain and leave the city isolated in the middle of a new lake. Shadowspinner hoped it would prevent the besieged forces from being able to work together with Lady's reinforcements. And perhaps this plan would work, though nothing else had yet.

"We cannot allow that woman to continue to disrupt our every plan! Did you finish the larger carpet?" Longshadow asked Howler after the connection had ended.

"Yes, it's ready."

"Then I need you to go get her. I'll send three of my best men with to back you up."

Howler didn't think he really needed the backup. Of course he knew Longshadow didn't think he needed them either; they would be there to make sure Howler didn't betray Longshadow and keep Lady for himself. Though he didn't know how Longshadow thought any of his minions could overpower Howler, it was perhaps not something to risk. He might have outfitted them with some kind of dangerous magical weapons; Longshadow certainly had more toys than any other wizard Howler had ever encountered.

"Consider her caught," Howler said. "I have a score to settle with her anyway."

 **Taglios** :

Soulcatcher decided that impersonating her sister had been enough fun that she wanted to continue. Recently, Lady was always with a large man called Ram, one of the Deceivers. He had appointed himself her bodyguard. Soulcatcher cast a spell to disguise Croaker as Ram, and another to make sure he remained silent, and while her sister was attempting to relieve the siege of Jaicur, the two of them visited Taglios.

Her first destination was the fortress which Lady had ordered built near the city as a base for assembling and training armies. Since Lady was supposed to be in Jaicur, her apparent arrival in Taglios produced some confusion. She was greeted by the Prahbrindrah himself. "We didn't expect you back so soon."

"We won a small victory north of Dejagore. Blade planned and carried out the operation. I left him in charge. I've returned to train new forces. The fortress looks good. I take it the priests have given up their obstructionism?"

"You've convinced them," the prince said with a troubled look. The two chatted for a while, and then Soulcatcher asked if her quarters were ready, so she could rest after her long ride. Once they had settled in, Soulcatcher consulted her spies. She then summoned a few men Croaker didn't recognize, and gave them orders.

"Smoke thinks the Deceivers are up to something," she explained to Croaker once they were alone. "My best reconstruction of his worries is that he thinks Kina is something like the Dominator, somehow bound or imprisoned as the Dominator was in the Barrowlands, and trying to get free. He believes that the Deceivers are trying to release Kina, and that my sister has joined the Kina cause."

"Do you think Kina is real?" Croaker asked.

"Well, it might explain some of the strange things that have been going on. The Dominator could still influence the world while he slept. If there's a real Kina, she could be doing the same. But there isn't much evidence yet. And I can't imagine my sister would try to raise another Dominator after having worked so hard to keep the first one down. Still, Smoke is quite convinced, enough to push him into the arms of Longshadow."

Croaker cursed. "Why is everyone we work with always so stupid?"

"Don't worry, I have the situation in hand." She gave Croaker a reassuring caress. "Those men I was talking to were some of your girlfriend's assassins. They'll keep Smoke away from Longshadow's agents until the agents can be eliminated. I'll have Frogface help them; Longshadow and Smoke won't be able to coordinate anything troublesome."

Soulcatcher continued to impersonate Lady in subsequent days, and Croaker was impressed by how well she was able to do so. He found it strange to hear Soulcatcher always talking with just a single voice, and at times he came close to forgetting which sister he was with. Soulcatcher performed the same kinds of organizational tasks that Lady would have done if she'd really returned, fixing problems and building up the troops and resources that the war would continue to require. Like Lady, she had plenty of experience with military leadership, and her efforts seemed to be improving efficiency.

Eventually, Frogface reported that Longshadow's agents were dead. "Unfortunately, I think Smoke may have the magical talent to contact Longshadow directly. He'll have to do it from somewhere in the palace, as the stranglers keep a good watch on him whenever he leaves."

Soulcatcher nodded. "He'll try to do it from his secure room." Previous scouting had revealed that Smoke had a personal study chamber which he'd tried to completely ward against shadows and scrying. Soulcatcher went into ritual mode for a while, and eventually summoned up a small, smoky demon. "I need you to kill a man called Smoke." She described the wizard. "Frogface will lead you to him."

As they waited to find out what happened, Croaker asked "Is killing Smoke really the best option? He might have valuable information about Longshadow's activities."

"It's unlikely that he knows much that I don't already know," Soulcatcher replied. "Considering how relentlessly he has schemed against the Black Company, I thought you'd welcome his death."

Croaker had little doubt that she knew more than she told him. That was the problem, of course, and the reason he'd have wanted to question Smoke himself. But it was unclear how he could have arranged that even if the traitor were to live. Still, it was frustrating getting such a selective story. "It is likely, however, that he knows things that I don't know."

"So suspicious! It's healthy, of course. But don't worry, I tell you everything you need to know," Soulcatcher said. Croaker was not much reassured.

"Well, he's not dead, at least not yet," Frogface reported upon his return. "But the demon interrupted him in the middle of his attempt to contact Longshadow. I don't know how much he managed to report before the attack. The Prahbrindrah and some of his guards also interrupted, and the demon retreated to avoid a big mess. The demon's gone now, returned home. But he did managed to badly injure Smoke. The wizard's unconscious, and it's unclear when or if he will awaken."

Soulcatcher had little time to consider her next move as the demands of directing the Taglian military buildup continued to distract her, demands she couldn't ignore without compromising her disguise. And she'd also committed to a dinner with the Prahbrindrah. She would deal with Smoke later.

 **Howler** :

Howler found that intelligence about the situation near Jaicur was sparse. Confusion spells seemed to be everywhere, distracting the shadows that Shadowspinner used to scout, and preventing him from having any good information on the disposition of Lady's forces. So Howler had to do all his own scouting. Still, he could move quickly, and being able to look down from above was a big advantage; he was sure he would find Lady soon.

His reconnaissance was interrupted by a contact from Longshadow. He had to land to deal with the communication. "She's in Taglios!" Longshadow said as soon as the connection was strong enough. "Proceed there to retrieve her."

"That's not possible," Howler replied. "It's clear that she's been directing the war effort here. Her spells are everywhere, confusing our shadows."

"Smoke says he has seen her in Taglios, and several of my agents there have been killed. She must have found them."

"I don't know what's going on in Taglios, but while Shadowspinner's intelligence has been terrible, I'm sure he would have heard some report or rumor if the enemy commander had left the field. This must be some trick."

"Yes, it certainly must be some trickery, but Smoke saw her in Taglios. He's incapable of lying to me. The trick must be that she's trying to fool us into thinking she's in Stormgard."

"I suppose that's possible," Howler admitted.

"And if she has something so important to do in Taglios, and is going to such great lengths to prevent us from knowing about it, it's something we must stop. Proceed to Taglios immediately, and seize her!"

Howler moaned. As happened with increasing frequency, Longshadow seemed to be forgetting that they were supposed to be allies, not master and servant. Still, as a practical matter, it was not as equal an alliance as Howler would have liked; it was probably best not to argue. And anyway, it was always possible that Longshadow was right in this instance. "As you wish," he said and signed off. Back to Taglios it was. Howler usually liked flying, but he was getting a little tired of running the Overlook to Taglios shuttle.

When he arrived in Taglios, Howler heard reports that Lady was having dinner with the Prahbrindrah. He decided to ambush her when she was on her way home from that meeting. He deployed the men Longshadow had given him on a likely street, and began setting up magical traps.

Soulcatcher hadn't anticipated any trouble. She was using Lady's coach to get around, and she'd offered the Prahbrindrah and the Radisha a ride home after the dinner. She was distracted by her conversation with the city's leaders when Howler sprang the ambush.

Since it was unclear what the effects of killing the prince of the city might be, Howler decided it was best not to take chances on that score; he focused all of his attention on the woman he believed was Lady, and tried to avoid doing too much damage to anyone else. His initial magical assault succeeded in knocking Soulcatcher unconscious; he would have been very surprised at how easy it was if he'd known who his target really was. He levitated the unconscious body away while Longshadow's men tried to fend off other threats.

They were not completely successful. The man Howler had believed to be Soulcatcher's bodyguard had the Black Company lance. Howler had no time to consider why before he was completely distracted by agonizing pain, as the bodyguard was quick to use the lance against him. His defenses had no effect at all, and the wound hurt far more than it should have; he screamed far more loudly than usual. Howler could vaguely see that some sort of illusion around the bodyguard seemed to be fading as the bodyguard stabbed him, but he was much more concerned with getting away than finding out what was going on.

Still, Howler had dealt with pain for a long time. He wasn't so distracted as to lose track of his prisoner as he fled, and though he left Longshadow's men behind (not really a loss from his perspective), he was able to get to his carpet with the woman and take off.

The flight to Overlook was horrible. Some kind of poison or magic from the lance was eating away at him, and he felt himself grow steadily weaker. Worse, while it seemed very likely that Longshadow would be able to help him, he was far from sure the bastard would want to, so he had only the slimmest hope that returning to the fortress would do him any good. Still, it was the only hope he had, and he flew doggedly through the night.

Fortunately for Howler, it was during Howler's flight that Longshadow heard more dire news from Jaicur. Shadowspinner had been killed (by Kina, according to the confusing reports), and his army was no more. Most of the men had deserted, and some had joined the Taglian side. Thus, while letting Howler die was extremely tempting, Longshadow feared that he would have need of the little wizard in the times ahead. When Howler and his prisoner finally made it to Overlook, Longshadow had his guards drug the woman and throw her in a cell, and spent several days helping his ally fight off the horrible damage the lance had done to his body.

 **Overlook** :

Longshadow's long struggles to heal Howler gave Frogface enough time to locate his mistress. He easily slipped into her cell beneath Overlook. Longshadow still thought he'd captured Lady, but she'd shown enough power that he was keeping her drugged to ensure that she couldn't use magic to escape. Frogface repeatedly sucked out her blood, cleansed it of the drugs, and returned it to her, until she was largely recovered.

"Your disguise was too good. Longshadow sent Howler to capture Lady, and he ended up with you instead."

"Yes, obviously." Soulcatcher laughed. "Longshadow will regret that mistake. So, this means Croaker is free in Taglios."

"Yes, and Lady was still camped near Jaicur, last I heard. She and her Deceiver friends managed to sneak into Shadowspinner's camp and assassinate the shadowmaster, so the siege of Jaicur has been lifted."

"Croaker will surely seek out my sister to tell her that he's still alive. And she will look for Croaker as soon as she hears he's alive. We can't have them getting back together; that's no fun at all. Find some way to prevent their reunion. Rainy season is starting; find some way to ensure that they are on opposite sides of the Main when the river becomes impassable again."

"As you wish. And then?" the imp asked, somewhat hopefully.

"I am most grateful for the rescue. Return after dealing with the Lady and Croaker situation, and if you have succeeded, I will free you."

The imp rushed off enthusiastically. Soulcatcher crept through the fortress, learning what she could about it as she sought an exit. She was surprised at how few people there were in the huge structure. Apparently the paranoid Longshadow felt safer with fewer potential traitors around. Still, even with its immensity and its amazingly impressive fortifications and defensive magics, it seemed to Soulcatcher that with so few troops the fortress would have trouble defending itself against a determined attacker.

Some of the few guards did catch up with her as she finally found an exit. She opened a hole in reality, and a massive beast forced its way through, tearing at the opening and widening it. The demonic creature charged the guards, whose weapons couldn't even scratch it. Soulcatcher slipped away as the beast rampaged through the fortress.

When Howler recovered, he and Longshadow discovered Soulcatcher's escape, and were able to guess from the reports that they had had the wrong prisoner. Agents operating near Jaicur had also managed to send back more reports, enabling the two wizards to piece together a more accurate picture of what had happened. Soulcatcher's demon was gone by now, but the damage had been considerable.

"How could you have seized the wrong woman?" Longshadow raged.

Howler didn't bother pointing out that it was Longshadow who had told him to look for her in Taglios. "Presumably the 'Kina' who killed Shadowspinner was really Lady. Even if she did it with the help of her strangler friends, though, it is worrying that she is now strong enough to take out one like him."

"And she has access to the Lance of Passion. And after this debacle, Soulcatcher may be inclined to work with them against us. Well, more than she already has been."

"That's certainly a danger," Howler said, trying his best to keep calm.

"Well, that at least is something we can fix. For now, Soulcatcher is alone and on foot, and deep in our territory. It will take her a long time to get to anywhere where she could get any help. We must make sure she doesn't have the chance to rejoin our other enemies."

"And how do you propose to accomplish this?"

"There are much larger and more powerful shadows on the plain than any I have yet unleashed. It is time I sent out one of the big ones."

Howler moaned loudly. "You haven't done that yet because you've insisted it would be too dangerous. Has it become less dangerous? And are you really sure that it will be able to kill her?"

"You managed to knock her out in Taglios," Longshadow observed.

"I'm not sure how. She must have been distracted by the other magic she was maintaining. Her defenses will be fully up now, obviously."

"That won't matter. The shadows are not so easily stopped."

Longshadow waited until the next morning to begin summoning the great shadow. He usually summoned shadows at night, so they could be sent out immediately, but establishing control over this one would be far more difficult than dealing with one of the lesser shadows; he would need several hours, and it was best to work on it while daylight kept the shadow weak.

During the night, Howler found a few crows, which had to be Soulcatcher's agents since they were active at night, and told them "shadows hunt you." He assumed they'd get the message to their mistress. The next day he kept watch as Longshadow worked the spells to control the great shadow, ostensibly to be available to help if things went badly wrong.

By the time night fell again, Longshadow thought he had the monster sufficiently controlled, and he sent the shadow out to hunt Soulcatcher. It caught up with her before the next morning.

With the warning she'd gotten from Howler Soulcatcher had had time to prepare for the shadow's arrival, and with the knowledge she'd gained from Moonshadow she was able to keep the nightmare confused and distracted, preventing it from getting close enough to attack her. She considered trying to take control of it herself, but she rejected this as likely to take far too much time.

However, she knew that the shadows wanted more than anything to kill, as many people as possible. Only the tightest magical control could keep them focused on an assigned task. Soulcatcher led the giant shadow to a nearby town, slowly working to loosen Longshadow's controls as she eluded it. Upon arriving in a population center, it was soon distracted by all the other people available for it to kill. Soulcatcher was able to slip away during the slaughter. Longshadow already seemed to be wildly unpopular with his subjects, but it couldn't hurt to further reinforce the terrible reputation of the shadowmasters.

The rogue shadow kept Longshadow and Howler busy as Soulcatcher put ever more distance between herself and Overlook. She stole a succession of horses to move more quickly. She was halfway across the shadowlands when Frogface reported back in.

"I wasn't sure quite how to carry out your mission, but fortunately it proved easy. Lady decided to return to Taglios after her victory at Jaicur. At the same time, Croaker decided to go to Jaicur, hoping to catch up with Lady there. But for some reason Croaker decided it was extremely important that nobody know he was going to Jaicur, so he traveled secretly, along a side route. The two passed one another without knowing it. Croaker is now in Jaicur, and Lady is in Taglios. Lady is pregnant, by the way."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Anyway, the Main is flooding now, so mission accomplished."

"It doesn't sound like you did very much work at all."

"You told me what you wanted to happen; there was nothing about me needing to work hard. Anyway, somebody had decided to build a bridge at the Vehdna-Bota ford. I took it down, and they won't be able to rebuild it until the flood recedes again. So without me Croaker would surely be on his way to Taglios to return to his beloved in just a couple of weeks, instead of having to wait several months."

"Fair enough. You've been extremely useful, so it will be hard to lose you, but a deal is a deal. You don't happen to have any friends I might be able to work with, do you?"

"I might be able to think of one or two. Contact me after I get home and maybe I'll have a couple of names for you."

"All right. You are released, imp." The creature promptly vanished.

"Was it a good idea letting the imp go?" Soulcatcher asked herself in a baritone voice as she continued to ride northward.

"If I showed he couldn't trust me, he would have become a lot less useful," the serious woman's voice pointed out.

"But without his help I'd still be Longshadow's prisoner. This place has grown dangerous!" a little girl's voice said.

"That much is true," a deep bass man's voice said. "I've been taking too many unnecessary risks. I need minions to take the risks for me."

"Minions can be treacherous," a deathly whisper pointed out.

"Yet it's still more dangerous to be without," the scholar's voice said. Besides, when she'd had Croaker around it had been pleasant having someone to talk to, though she didn't voice that thought with any of her voices. She would never admit to being lonely.

"Why have I been taking so many risks?" the serious woman's voice asked.

"And how was Howler able to take me down so easily?" She remembered the strange way Stormbringer and Shapeshifter had gone down.

"Was someone weakening me?" a shaky voice asked.

"I handled that huge shadow well enough," the scholar's voice said.

"So maybe Howler is better than I thought," the serious voice mused. "But suppose someone was messing with me. And other wizards; there's been a suspicious number of deaths recently."

"Well, maybe the shadow's just not as dangerous as a wizard. Though surely Longshadow wouldn't have sent it if he didn't think it would be more than I could handle."

"Perhaps whoever is meddling isn't in the area. The suspiciously easy defeats of wizards all happened near Jaicur, or in my case near Taglios, several hundred miles north of the fight with the shadow. Or perhaps the meddler only pays attention to fights between two wizards."

"An interesting puzzle," a cheerful voice opined. "It may take a while to solve."

"If I survive," the serious voice commented. "I do need to be more cautious. And minions may well help. What kind of minions could I find? Perhaps I could steal some of the shadows."

"A wizard or two would be best. Someone I could communicate with at long range," the deep bass man's voice offered.

She dug through Moonshadow's memories. Moonshadow had gathered a few of the minor sorcerers in his territory and recruited them for shadow weaver training. He had tried to exterminate everyone else with any magical talent, especially anyone who seemed to be particularly strong. This seemed to be standard shadowmaster procedure, to eliminate potential threats. But the shadowmasters had been distracted by their squabbles with one another and with Taglios, and had not managed to be completely thorough. There were always some who escaped, some refugees who fled to territories outside the shadowlands. Any refugees that had gone north were likely to have signed up with some faction in Taglios, and the territory beyond the shadowlands in other directions was fairly inhospitable, so refugees were unlikely to have prospered, but some might have survived, especially if they had powerful magic.

In particular, digging through Moonshadow's memories turned up the name Oracle, an ancient witch who had ruled a city in the eastern shadowlands before Moonshadow's armies arrived, and who had eluded all Moonshadow's efforts to hunt her down. Someone clever, with magical talent and a grudge against the shadowmasters, could be very useful to Soulcatcher in carrying out her schemes. Of course, Oracle had managed to hide herself from Moonshadow, but Moonshadow had been distracted by ruling his empire. And anyway, he wasn't nearly as skilled as Soulcatcher.


	5. Rainy Season 2, part 1

**Overlook** :

Howler returned to Overlook after another scouting expedition with a new passenger, a large black man who seemed very uncomfortable with this mode of transport. Howler immediately took his guest to a meeting with Longshadow.

"Mogaba claimed command of the Black Company forces in Stormgard during the siege, when he believed Croaker was dead. He was apparently unwilling to accept Croaker's return to leadership, and has instead offered his services to us. As I already indicated in our previous communications on the subject, I believe he is sincere. He's already done some work raising new forces to replace our losses at Stormgard."

"Yes, thank you, Howler," Longshadow said. "General, you wanted to discuss strategy?"

"Yes," Mogaba replied. "Your enemies are busily raising new armies in Taglios. You have more people and more territory, so in principle you ought to be able to raise more forces to meet them, but I recommend taking advantage of the current situation with the Main flooded. The enemy's forces are divided in two, and there is no way for the force at Stormgard," he briefly wondered why the shadowmasters still used the name given by their late and seemingly unlamented colleague, "to gain reinforcements except by recruiting locally. Since the region has been devastated by the recent fighting, and most of the young men nearby had already been recruited into Stormshadow's army earlier anyway, that is unlikely to gain them much."

"What do you propose, then?" Longshadow asked.

"You still have a substantial army, as you did not participate in the previous fighting. It will be difficult to move during the rainy season, but not impossible. I recommend sending your forces north, to near Stormgard. Have them meet up with any new forces you can raise in your northern territories over the next few months, and launch a counter-attack on Stormgard as the rainy season ends, before the Main becomes fordable."

"Unacceptable. That will leave me with no reserve forces guarding my own territory," Longshadow complained.

"It's the only way to assemble a large enough force to challenge Croaker's army at Stormgard before the rainy season ends. And when the Main falls again, he'll be able to bring in reinforcements from Taglios that will more than double his strength."

"The plan seems sound to me," Howler contributed. "And Lady's also north of the Main, and reports are she's slowed down by pregnancy, of all things. Croaker won't have her help, and Mogaba will have mine."

"No!" Longshadow insisted. "We cannot leave Shadowcatch and Overlook defenseless! Finishing Overlook is the most urgent matter; these battles in the north are a sideshow anyway. If Stormgard is so vulnerable to a counter-attack, find a way to do it without the armies I need to guard Overlook. Raise more forces in the north."

"There is no time to raise sufficient forces," Mogaba patiently explained.

"I'm not interested in excuses!" the shadowmaster ranted. "We've allowed you to join us because you promised that you could give us results. Get up there and show it!"

"May we at least have some shadows?" Howler asked. Mogaba winced; he hated any interference of sorcery in the pure contest of warfare, and the shadows particularly disturbed him.

"Certainly. A few shadows to assassinate Croaker could shift the balance, could it not?"

"Our enemies have developed some defenses against shadows; I doubt any could reach their leader. But it is difficult for them to protect all of their troops. A large number of shadows harassing them could substantially weaken their army. Not to mention severely dampening morale."

"It takes great effort to train a shadow sufficiently to make it trustworthy; we don't have enough such shadows to send them out for a struggle of attrition."

"They don't need to be fully trained as long as I and perhaps a few shadow weavers are there to direct them," Howler argued.

"I fear that your proposal would involve more of them than you could control. Surely you remember what happened recently with the shadow Soulcatcher freed from my control?" What Howler remembered was that that was an unusually large shadow, which he'd argued against releasing.

"I will of course give you a reasonable number of shadows," Longshadow continued. "I suggest you find ways to use them efficiently."

Howler knew that Longshadow's real objection was to placing excessive force under the command of people who could turn on him, so it was pointless to continue arguing. Longshadow would never change his mind. Howler and Mogaba departed to do their best with the inadequate resources they were permitted.

 **Painter** :

After gathering some gear she'd stashed in various places, and locating one of her Charm horses (she could only find one; the other had perhaps returned to Lady), Soulcatcher turned her attention eastward, to search the lower reaches of the Dandha Presh for Oracle or any other promising refugees. There were indeed small settlements of refugees and bandits who scraped out a living in the cold, high and narrow valleys east of the shadowlands. Her crows found an isolated house which seemed somewhat strange. It looked well-maintained, but didn't show any signs of being associated with any faction. Soulcatcher wondered why it hadn't been occupied or plundered by bandits. Perhaps it had been, but it really didn't look like a bandit base.

When she investigated in person, she found the house surrounded by minor confusion spells, designed to keep away curious people. That would explain why it was safe from bandits. Soulcatcher's crows had found it because the particular spells in use didn't work on birds. There seemed to be only one resident, presumably the one who cast the spells.

Soulcatcher watched for a bit, hoping to learn more before she confronted the wizard. Eventually, he left on some errand, and she let herself in. Judging from the items scattered about the place, the young man had been using his powers to steal from nearby communities. Many of the valuables seemed to be from the shadowlands. It seemed unlikely to Soulcatcher that the wizard was Oracle in disguise, though one could never be certain. Most likely he was some other refugee wizard, though.

When the young man returned, he was startled by the strange visitor in his home. Soulcatcher wore the tight leather that covered her entire body, along with her helmet with the full face mask. "Who are you?" he asked.

"An enemy of the shadowmasters," Soulcatcher replied, with a deep bass man's voice that seemed like it couldn't possibly come from such a relatively small body. She was making a guess about the sentiments of the young wizard. It seemed safe enough; almost everybody hated the shadowmasters. "Has word of Moonshadow's death reached you yet? I killed him," she continued, in a schoolgirl's voice ending with a giggle.

"That's... impressive. If you're telling the truth. But why are you here? What do you want with me? And you still haven't told me who you are."

Soulcatcher contemplated using a false name, but she was wearing her iconic outfit; if she'd wanted to conceal her identity, she should have planned ahead. So she replied, "I am called Soulcatcher. I come from far to the north, and I am stronger than any shadowmaster. But I do not have shadows, or any armies or minions like those that serve Longshadow, last of the surviving shadowmasters. I'm looking for other wizards who might help me overthrow him." Each sentence was in a different voice, the last that of a woman who sounded very serious and business-like.

"And that search brought you to me? I may know a few simple cantrips, but I can't imagine how I could be of any use against Longshadow."

"The spells you've put up around this house may be primitive, but they're hardly cantrips," another woman's voice said, dripping charm. "And the overwhelming majority of people have no magical talent at all; having only a little makes you rare and valuable. Don't you want to be more than a thief?"

The young man had no reply to this. His father had been an entertainer, in better times when there had still been demand for such things. It was his father who had taught him to weave illusions. Using them to entertain, as his father had, wouldn't be bad; it would be better than being a thief, surely. But putting on shows about the great heroes had never really been his dream; he wanted to be one of the heroes. Was he being offered a chance at that? It seemed far too good to be true.

"There are no heroes, in my experience," Soulcatcher said. "And I've experienced much. I've lived a very long time. But working for me you would certainly have the chance to see and do many things that you never would otherwise."

"Are you a mind-reader, then?"

"As I said, I've lived a very long time. People rarely surprise me any more. I need no magic to guess their thoughts."

He noticed that she hadn't answered the question, but he didn't want to ruin this opportunity by being rude. "I know you weren't looking for me. Were you just searching for any wizard, or did you happen upon me while seeking someone specific?"

"An insightful question! My confidence that you will prove useful is increasing. Any wizard could benefit my cause, but I had heard reports of a powerful witch called Oracle, who might be hiding in the mountains east of here."

"Oracle? I may have heard the name somewhere, but I'm afraid have no idea where she might be. On the other hand, I do know of some other wizards in the mountains to the east. Mostly they're not even as skilled as I am, but if you really have a use for even minor talents, there are a few dozen of them."

"That sounds very interesting!"

"They're all priests, and quite isolationist. They won't want to work for you. But perhaps you can find some way to persuade them. They've built a fortified temple high up in the mountains. Several small mountain villages near the temple pay them tribute. The place is called Dome, because it is supposed to be especially close to the dome of the sky."

"Yes, I'm sure I will be able to persuade them. By the way, what should I call you?"

"Since I'm rather good at creating images with my magic, I sometimes call myself Painter." His father had taught him enough about magic for him to know he should never tell anyone his real name.

"Good, I like wizards with appropriate names. Especially when they don't have the word 'shadow' clumsily inserted anywhere."

Painter was a little worried when he thought about why the name "Soulcatcher" might be appropriate, if it was, but his guest didn't seem to have any hostile intent.

"This house is rather pleasant, and I wouldn't mind taking a short break from traveling," Soulcatcher continued. "Tomorrow, let's set out for this Dome you've described."

 **Dome** :

On the way to Dome, Soulcatcher's crows brought her a piece of news she couldn't resist sharing with someone. "My sister seems to be having great luck in her choice of allies."

"Your sister?"

"Yes, another sorceress from the north. She tried to kill me once, many years ago. I've been trying to make her regret it."

"I see."

"She fell in love with a man she traveled south with, and the two of them now have a daughter."

"Are you planning on doing something to the daughter?" Painter had noticed Soulcatcher's lack of concern for most normal moral rules, and had been trying to ignore it, but hurting a little girl to get back at her mother wasn't something he was very comfortable with.

"No need! My sister has already taken care of that herself. She's been working with the Deceivers, those murderers who follow Kina."

"I thought those were a myth."

"A reasonable thing to think, but in fact they do exist. As perhaps does Kina herself; I haven't determined that for certain yet. Anyway, my sister has been relying on the stranglers heavily in her own schemes over the past several months. They did a lot of work for her, and she thought it was because they viewed her as some sort of avatar of Kina, a chosen one. But the Deceivers are well named! It was really my sister's daughter that the stranglers wanted, and they kidnapped the girl as soon as she was born."

"That's awful!"

"For the girl, perhaps. Though I don't know that being raised by Deceivers will be that much worse than it would have been to be raised by someone like my sister."

"Is your sister really that bad?"

"Worse. You can't possibly imagine. But this misery should last her a good long time. I suppose there's no need for me to add to it. Which is good, it means I can concentrate on Longshadow without being distracted by the project of revenge on my sister."

"I suppose that's good, then." Painter generally thought revenge was a waste of time. He mostly wanted to take Longshadow down because he wanted to be part of such a heroic effort, not because he felt that much need to hurt the shadowmasters.

"Indeed. And the Deceivers will keep my sister busy, and my sister will keep the Deceivers busy. It's good when hostile forces are tied up fighting one another."

"I can see that. Still, I see one concern."

"What's that?"

"Well, if Kina is real, as you said she might be, maybe this girl really is her chosen one. It'd be pretty bad if she actually does manage to wake Kina, wouldn't it?"

"That's true. But this Daughter of Night is still just an infant now. If she shows signs of power as she ages, we can worry about it then. Longshadow is the big problem now."

Remembering the stories of Kina, Painter wasn't sure, but he said "of course you're right."

The two set up a long-term camp about half a day away from the fortress of Dome. "I'd like to spy on them for a few days before making a move, so I'll have enough information to plot a strategy," Soulcatcher explained. Over the following days, she learned much about the organization of the temple.

Any young men from any of the nearby villages who showed any sign of magical talent were recruited into the priesthood. Supposedly, the temple was a stronghold of learning and men seeking enlightenment. There were no priestesses, and the priests did not take wives. Since heredity did seem to influence magical talent, Soulcatcher wondered if this system was sustainable in the long run, but she quickly discovered evidence that the priests spent a lot of time with women from the villages, even if marriage was forbidden to them. They also seemed to spend more time on internal political squabbles than on their supposed quest for enlightenment, but that wasn't really a surprise. People were the same everywhere.

Soulcatcher tried to identify those among the senior priests who seemed to owe their positions to politics more than talent. She'd probably have to kill off a few priests to intimidate the rest into submission, and those would be the least useful to her and so the most useful examples. The priests called themselves by an assortment of confusing titles, often very long; "third apprentice of the waxing summer moon" or the like, though abbreviations were often used. Obviously as wizards they avoided using true names, but she wondered how they managed to keep track when people died and others were promoted into their places. Probably it helped that there were only a few dozen of them. The leader had an especially long title, but was usually just called "Eldest." And while that was clearly intended as an honorific, in this case it seemed like it might be true; he looked like he might be a hundred years old, or far older than that if he had any life-extension magic. Which he probably didn't. None of them seemed to be that skilled.

Soulcatcher decided on her first move. She kidnapped the Eldest, and brought him to their camp, keeping him unconscious with magic. She surrounded the camp with various magical defenses to ensure they weren't interrupted. "It's difficult to perform anti-aging magic generally, and especially difficult when you aren't performing it on yourself, but it can be done if you're very good," Soulcatcher explained to Painter. "And I may have mentioned that I'm very good."

It took several days for Soulcatcher to be satisfied with her work. The priests searched for their leader throughout the time, but Soulcatcher's wards were quite sufficient. The Eldest still appeared quite old, but Soulcatcher's magic seemed to have taken off at least a couple of decades. Soulcatcher awakened him.

"How do you feel," she asked.

"What? Who are you?" the old man asked in an angry voice.

"Perhaps a friend," she answered. "So, how do you feel?"

The old man thought for a moment. "Better than I have in a while. Strange. Why do you ask?"

"I've made you younger. Not a lot, but obviously enough that you've been able to tell. And now I offer you a choice."

"Yes?"

"Obey me. If you and your priests serve me faithfully, I can make you even younger, and keep doing this once in a while indefinitely."

"The Temple of the Starry Dome of Heaven has always been independent! We bend to no master! Or mistress," he said uncertainly, noting Soulcatcher's somewhat ambiguous shape.

"Perhaps you should hear the other choice before you decide. It would be a shame after I went to all this effort, but if you refuse to work for me, I'll have to kill you and hope the next Eldest proves more cooperative."

The old man grew a little pale, and Soulcatcher went on, "there's no hurry. You can have a few minutes to decide."

"The other priests have been looking for you for several days, by the way," Painter commented. "So if you have any thoughts that they might rescue you, forget it. If they had any chance of finding you, they would have done so by now."

The old man thought for a long time. "I suppose it wouldn't be a bad thing that the temple will be able to benefit from my wisdom for longer than it otherwise would have."

"Sensible," Soulcatcher said. "Now let's return to your temple, and you can explain the situation to your people."

Soulcatcher and the Eldest strode into the courtyard of the temple together, and the Eldest announced that the priests were to cooperate with their new guests. Most of the priests hung back, but one of the younger ones said "the Eldest has been possessed or ensorcelled! Kill the demon!"

The ensuing battle was very short; a few spells from the bolder priests fizzled as they neared Soulcatcher, and she responded by sending bolts of power in every direction. Most of those struck were merely knocked unconscious, but those Soulcatcher had previously picked out as expendable suffered a more permanent fate. The remainder of the priests put up no further struggle.

Once Soulcatcher had complete control of the temple, she divided the complex roughly in half, claiming half for herself (and setting aside a small apartment for Painter) and leaving the rest for the remaining priests. This naturally provoked some grumbling, but since nobody dared challenge her, the priests decided to deal with the crowding by starting new construction projects to expand the temple.

Soulcatcher remembered how Croaker had tracked her by following her crows, and decided that this was not something that could be allowed to continue. She thought of Lady's superior horses, and it occurred to her that she could make superior crows. She dug through the memories of the many sorcerers whose skills she'd stolen over the years, and came up with some ideas for how to enchant a new generation of birds. She'd give them better endurance, like the horses, to increase their range. She'd also make them stronger, like the horses, because why not? More importantly, they'd have to be a lot smarter; she was continually frustrated at the limits to how much information ordinary crows could carry.

But the most important feature she would add is that she would make sure that she could communicate with them at range, even at a considerable distance. She'd make them able to receive her sendings as if they were wizards. Then she could communicate with her master crows, and they'd in turn be able to give orders to ordinary crows, and nobody would ever again be able to find her by following crows. At best, they'd be able to find her master crows.

Every new generation of birds would need the magic instilled in them from birth, and the more of the master crows she could make the better, so she taught the remaining temple priests the spells for enchanting the crows and had them do that work for her. She also took the time to put some minor blessings on the local crops, and she killed off a troublesome local bandit gang, so the residents of the villages around Dome increasingly resigned themselves to the presence of this dark sorceress. Having her around was not entirely without benefits.


	6. Rainy Season 2, part 2

**Oracle** :

With the help of the temple priests, Soulcatcher set up a network of wards around Dome. Most who approached the valley would find themselves forgetting where they were going, and remembering some urgent business back the way they had come. Those who pressed on were likely to fall victim to spells with more physical and less psychological effects.

As she was working on the outer ring of wards, Soulcatcher was approached by a stooped figure in faded robes, her wrinkled features partly concealed beneath her hood. The stranger moved with surprising speed and agility.

"I believe you've been looking for me," the old woman said. "Soulcatcher, isn't it?"

"I've been thinking of changing my name," the black figured replied, in a deep baritone voice that seemed incongruous from the small, somewhat feminine shape. She went on, at first in the voice of a little girl, and then in a disturbing whisper. "Everybody else seems to have done so when they moved to this region. And having just one identity is boring, and a little dangerous. Your enemies know what to expect. I don't suppose you have any suggestions?"

"Perhaps, but there are other matters to discuss first," the old woman replied. "I see many things in my visions and dreams."

"I should hope so, or you would be badly misnamed. That is, assuming you are Oracle, but who else would you be?"

"The list of possibilities is long. Still, you have correctly identified me, perhaps because you have some of the same gifts that I do."

"That I do. If we are going to talk, let us do so more comfortably." Soulcatcher led Oracle back to the temple.

"Impressive," Oracle commented. "I didn't think there was any place this large and comfortable in the mountains."

"It serves," Soulcatcher replied. Painter brought them tea. "Now, you said you had matters to discuss?"

"Yes. I see that you have done great harm to my enemies, the shadowmasters, and that you may do yet greater harm in the future. I see that you are very powerful, and may become more powerful yet. And I see that you have been looking for me, hoping to bring me into your service."

"All that is true."

"I have been living simply for years now, trying to avoid attracting the attention of the shadowmasters. With three of them gone, and the remaining one quite distracted, it seemed like a good time to re-establish a more comfortable situation. But it might be even better to join up with a powerful ally, rather than trying to go it alone again. If you are willing to reward me as generously as I deserve, as you will surely be able to do, I am quite willing to serve you."

"Moonshadow thought you were probably the strongest of those who escaped his campaign of slaughter, but he really didn't know very much about you." Soulcatcher didn't bother to explain how she was so well informed about what Moonshadow had and hadn't known. "What abilities do you possess? No youth magic, apparently."

The hag laughed. "I find that people respect and fear me more when I look like this. And if I should ever feel the need to be young and pretty for some reason, I have sufficient skill with illusions. But I am not weak or frail. I am a gifted healer, enough to undo the more important degeneration age normally brings. I simply haven't bothered to correct the cosmetic damage. I hope my appearance does not offend you."

"Not at all. Do go on."

"I have already mentioned my visions and dreams. Those are my greatest strengths, divination and healing, though I am more than half your age, and in my long years I've picked up a great variety of tricks."

"Indeed, such talents may be of some use to me. I should warn you," Soulcatcher said, now in a feminine but very serious voice, "that just meeting me may mean that you have drawn the attention of some extremely dangerous beings."

"More dangerous than you? Yes, I suppose so," Oracle said. "Well, nothing to be done about it now. Indeed, that is part of why I have sought you out. I am glad that Moonshadow is dead by your hand, and would be happy to see Longshadow suffer the same fate. But in my divinations, I have seen greater threats than these self-styled shadowmasters. You know where their shadows come from?"

Soulcatcher nodded.

"Of course you do," Oracle said. "You know what Moonshadow knew, don't you? Did you catch his soul? But he didn't know everything. There are great powers on the plain of glittering stone, far greater than Longshadow or even you. Perhaps more comparable to that Dominator you people used to have in the north."

"How do you know of the Dominator?" Soulcatcher asked.

"I am called Oracle for a reason, you know."

"Of course. Go on, about these powers on the plain of glittering stone."

"I don't know how many of them are, or how they are related, or what all of their agendas are. I know the most about one who seems to identify herself with the goddess Kina of local legend, but I don't think that this Kina is the only power beyond the shadowgate. And the powers reach out into the world, exerting a subtle influence, troubling people's dreams and bending their thoughts and wills. I believe this is also something your Dominator used to do while he was imprisoned."

"That would explain much," Soulcatcher commented. "Many events since my arrival in the south have seemed to lack sense. Including, I am troubled to admit, some of my own actions."

"Yes, I'm sure you are one of those they have been particularly keen to influence," Oracle said. "I do not know what agendas these powers pursue. I believe Kina is imprisoned, and of course one of her goals is to become free, but I'm sure she has other goals. And as I said I know there are others. Well, there is at least one more, as I am sure that the influence does not all come from Kina. Unless perhaps her imprisonment has made her mad; the influences often seem to work at cross-purposes."

"Long imprisonment can leave one troubled," Soulcatcher commented blandly.

"Assuming multiple powers, I do not know if it is simply Kina and a single enemy of Kina, or whether there are many different beings in the plain. I also don't know if any of the others are prisoners, like Kina, or unable to leave the plain for some other reason, or whether some just prefer to work indirectly without leaving the plain."

"So you don't know much; you seem to have covered most of the plausible possibilities."

"Indeed. I hope that if we work together, we can learn something more definite. I do think that there must be someone who wishes to rid the world of great wizards. I know your kind are hostile and suspicious by nature, but the recent slaughter is quite extraordinary. I believe that the death of Shapeshifter, Stormshadow, Moonshadow, and Shadowspinner was partly the result of a power or powers on the plain encouraging the great wizards to seek one another's deaths, though of course it didn't hurt that your lot never seem to need much encouragement."

"Whether it is your powers of the plain or not, I have to agree that the recent deaths have been a mystery."

"Perhaps you and Longshadow and Howler are still around because the powers on the plain have more use for you than for the ones who have died, but the signs I've seen suggest otherwise. I expect that your deaths are desired as well, but that the powers haven't been able to arrange them yet."

Soulcatcher was thoughtful throughout this speculation, and said "if that's right, then it seems that one of the goals of those of us who oppose their agenda should be to maintain or increase the number of great wizards on the playing field."

"Perhaps. But the other surviving great wizards are not friendly, and I don't know where you would find new ones."

"Nonetheless, we perhaps shouldn't be too hasty to eliminate the existing wizards, though it may be necessary in the case of Longshadow. But as for adding more great wizards, I have no source of new ones, but there are other possibilities. Moonshadow and Shadowspinner may really be dead, but as for Shapeshifter and Stormbringer, there's a reason that the White Rose buried them in warded tombs centuries ago instead of trying to destroy them. We of the Taken are infused with a fragment of the Dominator's power, and are nearly impossible to eliminate." Soulcatcher thought it might be a good idea to mention her own immortality to Oracle; it might discourage the hag from bothering with any tedious plans to overthrow her down the road.

"Do you mean that they may not really be dead? I have had some strange dreams about them, but not even my dreams are always meaningful, so I hadn't thought much of it."

"I suspect I could revive either or both of them. Indeed, they'll probably find a way to return on their own in a century or two, but that will surely be too late to make any difference to our plans."

"I take it then that you are considering doing this? To give the powers on the plain more distractions to keep track of? A thought worth pursuing, though they may be more trouble than they are worth," Oracle commented. "You should also try to be alert for any signs that the powers are influencing you. Perhaps you should keep some record of your activities, to make it easier to keep track of patterns? I don't think that manipulating me has been a top priority for anyone prior to this point, but I am concerned that working for you may change that, so do be alert for any strange behavior on my part."

Painter had been silent previously, but at this point he interrupted. "Mistress, you said you might want to have me use my illusions to impersonate you, to give orders when you can't be present. I could do better at that if I knew more about you, so if you were to help me write such a record, it could serve multiple purposes."

"I suppose. As far as observing suspicious behavior, both of you please do the same for me," Soulcatcher replied. "Our alliance should prove profitable, Oracle. Let us arrange some quarters for you, and then you can help me finish the wards."

 **Howler** :

Since Longshadow wouldn't provide enough forces for a counter-attack on Jaicur, Mogaba and Howler worked on raising new armies, and building up fortifications in the towns south of Jaicur. Mogaba established himself at Tragavec, which the shadowmasters called Shadowlight and which had been Shadowspinner's capital. He focused on training up new troops.

Howler harassed the defenders of Jaicur, sending shadows against them and striking with his own magic when a chance presented itself. He carefully avoided any further encounters with the lance, and his efforts to avoid the standard-bearer somewhat reduced his effectiveness. As a result, Croaker gathered new recruits faster than Howler was killing them off, but still, Howler's efforts slowed the growth of Croaker's army.

Either because Croaker had spies keeping him informed of the shadowlander activities, or just because it was obvious, Croaker was apparently able to figure out that Mogaba and Howler were trying to hem him in with new fortifications. Thus, about halfway through the rainy season, he sent a force to try to create a gap in the fortified line.

The town of Tonk was nestled in a bend of the Naghir River, and its natural situation made it more easily defended than any of the other places Mogaba was having strengthened. As a result, Mogaba had tried to make the best of his overstretched troops by leaving a skeletal garrison. Howler's shadows detected Croaker's troops making their way southward to attempt to capture the weakly defended town.

There was no time to bring in more troops before Croaker's force arrived in Tonk, but with his carpet Howler had no trouble making it there himself, bringing along a handful of shadowweavers. He didn't have nearly enough of the minor wizards, but if there was going to be a big fight at Tonk, that was where they would be likely to be the most useful.

Howler saw that the land approach to the village had a trench filled with spikes, backed by a wall on which significant progress had been made; one of the towers that was to flank the gatehouse was finished, though the gatehouse itself was still under construction. The Naghir river wasn't particularly large or fast at this point, so work was underway on walls facing the river, but that work was much less advanced. Still, even if troops could attack across the river, it would hinder and slow them enough that defending archers could do a lot of damage. Even with the ditch and the higher wall, the land approach was the more vulnerable point.

While awaiting the approach of the Black Company, Howler had his shadowweavers use their pets to thoroughly scout the surrounding territory, looking for places to lay ambushes and traps. Howler himself set a few magical traps in the fields in front of the main city approach, but he didn't have time to do very much before Croaker's forces arrived.

Croaker immediately divided his force into three parts, sending forces to cross the river both upstream and downstream while positioning his main force just out of bowshot of the walls. Howler wished Mogaba was there, but the little wizard was many centuries old, and had seen plenty of warfare; he wasn't totally incapable of directing a battle himself. He knew that he didn't have enough troops to attempt a counter-attack on even Croaker's smaller forces.

The forces that had crossed the river didn't seem to be preparing an attack. It looked like they were probably there to cut the town off from reinforcements or supplies. They were starting to set up fortified camps. Croaker's main force began building siege engines.

When the siege engines were built close to one of Howler's pre-established traps, he set them off, and the explosions and other deadly spells killed off a number of the artillery crew and destroyed some of the engines. But there weren't enough of the traps, and soon several ballistas and catapults had been set up.

Howler positioned himself atop the one finished tower, and put up such magical defenses as he could to strengthen the structure. From that high point, he sent out sorcerous strikes against the siege engines. Croaker tried to focus his artillery fire on the tower, but Howler's defenses mostly held. On the other hand, the concentration required to keep up the defenses was taxing, reducing Howler's ability to counter-attack, so he wasn't able to destroy the ballistas faster than Croaker could build them. Still, Croaker would eventually run out of materials.

More importantly, he would run out of daylight. The inconclusive artillery vs. sorcery battle continued until sundown, at which point the shadows went forth to support Howler's efforts to take out the artillery. This proved enough to silence the attack on the tower.

The moon was full, no doubt because Croaker had planned it that way. But the first night was also cloudy; Croaker couldn't plan the weather, and it was rainy season, after all. Howler decided to risk leaving Tonk during the night. He used his carpet to ferry in a handful of extra troops from nearby bases, as well as some additional supplies in case the siege dragged out. He considered going to Shadowlight to ask for a relief army, but Mogaba really needed to train up a larger force. Marching during the rainy season would mean heavy attrition, exactly the opposite of what was required. Best was for Howler to find a way to hold Tonk with the resources he had until the weather improved.

Returning to Tonk from his last shuttle run, Howler found that a small number of Black Company men had snuck into the town, probably under cover of One-Eye's illusions. Howler screamed at his shadowweavers for their incompetence in allowing such a thing, and they went to work with their shadows to hunt down the infiltrators. By dawn, they were assuring him that the infiltrators were all dead.

The next day, the artillery attack resumed, but as Howler hoped it was slowing down a bit as the attackers had to range further to find good materials for building new engines. Mantlets were easier, so on the second day Croaker had forces advancing behind mantlet cover to try to start filling in the ditch. Fortunately for Howler, that meant they had to get close, which made it quite easy for him to do a lot of damage with his sorcery.

After a few more days of Howler turning back whatever the Black Company sent at the town, the attackers settled down into a siege mode, strengthening their fortified camps all around the town. The small garrison and fortunately also small town population wasn't going through supplies very quickly, so with Howler's occasional resupply flights, his forces weren't going to be starved out. Ultimately, the main adverse effect of the siege was that no further work was getting done on the walls, since it was impossible to bring in significant amounts of building materials.

The shadows reported from the other fortified towns that construction was going well, and Mogaba's reports about his army in Tragavec were becoming more optimistic. There was the danger that when the rainy season ended, Lady might lead a new army to press the attack on Tonk harder, but Howler thought it more likely that Croaker would give up the siege and pull back before then. The shadows whittled away at Croaker's army every night, and the rainy season weather wasn't being kind to the encamped besiegers either.

 **Shadowcat** :

Soulcatcher's crows reported all the developments in the war, minor as they were during the off season. She decided against intervening, as the apparent stalemate still seemed to her to be for the best, in the short term at least.

Painter was learning to impersonate her fairly well, so she decided it was now safe to leave Dome for a while; Painter could probably keep the priests in line. Soulcatcher decided she wanted to track down Shapeshifter's apprentice. Even a minor magical talent could prove useful, and it certainly didn't seem desirable to have the woman join up with a hostile faction.

The woman had apparently been trapped in the shape of a forvalaka, a giant magical cat beast, since Shapeshifter's fall. Some sort of trap he'd left on her to ensure she wouldn't betray him; a curse that would prevent her from returning to human shape without his help. The last reports had her wandering to the northeast, no doubt to get away from the war. Soulcatcher couldn't really watch everywhere at once, and hadn't been that interested in the apprentice, so she had subsequently lost track. But the woman, even as a beast now, was a witch. She was also powerfully connected to Shapeshifter's magic. With Oracle's help, and with Shapeshifter's staff, Soulcatcher established a connection to the forvalaka.

"If you ever want to return to human form, go to Ruderal." Soulcatcher didn't want to direct the woman to Dome until she knew for sure she could be enlisted.

The forvalaka had some trouble organizing her thoughts; one of the side effects of spending too long in an animal form. But she eventually asked "where's that?" Soulcatcher conveyed some images and directions, and when the connection broke she thought the poor creature was on her way.

Soulcatcher's crows confirmed sighting the giant cat, so Soulcatcher and Oracle went out to meet her. It occurred to Soulcatcher that she could really use one of Howler's carpets at some point; having only one Charm horse was not really sufficient, and the carpets were faster than the Charm horses anyway. But Ruderal was not all that far from Dome, so even with Oracle on a normal horse they could get there by the time the forvalaka would be expected to arrive.

When they found the cat beast in Ruderal canyon, Soulcatcher immediately set about undoing the transformation spell. It took a lot of effort, but not very much time; soon, a very attractive young woman stood before Oracle and Soulcatcher.

"Thank you," the woman said, and then she said it again as Oracle offered her a robe.

"It's only temporary, I'm afraid," Soulcatcher said. "The curse Shapeshifter put on you is very powerful. It will take a very long time to remove, if I even can. But I can manage to return you to human form for a few hours at a time."

"I see."

"What should we call you?"

"Well, as long as I'm cursed with this form, I should call myself something appropriate. Call me Shadowcat."

"Really? Too many shadow names in the south, I think. Though I suppose it fits a giant black cat. I am Soulcatcher. Your master may have mentioned me."

The name seemed to make the woman nervous. "He did."

Soulcatcher laughed. "Oh come now. The stories can't have been that bad. Unless he exaggerated greatly. Which I suppose I wouldn't put past him."

"So, what do you want from me?"

"Well, you have some magical talent, and you're a dangerous fighter in your forvalaka form. Either could prove very useful under the right circumstances. Work for me, and you can have a comfortable place to stay, and I'll enable you to spend at least some of your time being human. I'm sure it will be better than wandering around in the wilderness."

"I suppose it will," Shadowcat replied. "Since I've heard Shapeshifter's tales about you, it seems only fair that I should hear your stories about Shapeshifter."

"Indeed. I suppose you miss him?"

"Though I'm very angry with him about the curse, yes, I do miss him a bit." The two women talked for a while about the fallen wizard, and when Shadowcat returned to forvalaka shape, the whole party returned to Dome.


	7. Dry Season 2, part 1

**Dome** :

Painter was surprised when Soulcatcher joined him for lunch. She seemed to eat rarely, perhaps an effect of the magic that made her Taken, and when she did she was usually alone. It was a rare opportunity to see her without her mask. Her face was pale, but very beautiful.

"I've discovered another assassination plot among the priests," commented Soulcatcher, after she'd had a few bites of food. "They're making my crows, so they know animals spy for me. How stupid do they have to be to think they can possibly hide anything from me when they're living right next to me?"

"I hope you've managed to get all the stupid ones by now," Painter replied. "Admittedly, the executions have helped with the overcrowding. Or at least the complaints about overcrowding; it seemed to me like they always had plenty of room. But eventually the attrition will hinder our enchanting projects."

"Well, some of them seem to be reliably loyal. The Eldest really wants another youth treatment, and a few other senior people are hoping they'll get the same. But as usual every troublemaker we kill had friends, who become more likely to choose to be troublemakers out of misguided loyalty to their fallen pals. Still, I don't think there are many brave ones left. Which could be a problem in itself, if we ever need them for anything besides enchanting, though their lack of talent probably already ruled out their having any other uses."

"Well, I wish I could recommend another source of good recruits, but for the moment I have no ideas."

"That's fine. With you and Oracle, I'm not doing too badly."

"By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about. One of our long-term goals is to learn about the plain of glittering stone, and eliminate any threats that might come from there, right?"

"Yes, I'd say that's my biggest goal at the moment."

"In that case, I'd like a better idea of what we're dealing with. Oracle suggested that the plain of glittering stone might have something in common with the barrows where you were once buried."

"Yes, if it was intended as a prison for Kina, it's possible it would have similarities to the Dominator's prison."

"There was a wizard who broke you out. How did he do it? Was he trying to free you, or did something go wrong? I'm wondering if there's anything we can learn from his efforts."

"Well, the plain of glittering stone is far larger than the barrows. In size, it's more similar to the plain of fear. But I confess to not knowing much about the plain of fear, and perhaps you're right that it's worth going over the story of the barrow. The wizard called himself Bomanz, and he didn't want to free anyone. He hoped to persuade or trick my sister into teaching him some of her powerful magic. Perhaps my sister found some way to reach out and encourage this foolish plan."

"Were you able to reach out of the barrow yourself?"

"A little. But anyway, this Bomanz was a fairly powerful wizard, perhaps comparable to Oracle. Though he never learned to prolong his life; I think that was one of the things he wanted to learn from my sister. What he was especially good at was spirit walking. That's how he entered the barrow."

"I don't know much about spirit walking."

"It's a rare and dangerous technique. When you detach your spirit from your body, you leave both more vulnerable, in different ways. If you're not good at it, it can be very bad for the health of the body, though Bomanz was skilled enough not to have any trouble in that respect. But it also has major advantages. The walking spirit is very hard to detect. Spirit form also makes a wizard much more sensitive to nearby magic. That can be bad if the wizard comes under magical attack, but it also makes it much easier for the wizard to manipulate nearby magical energies. It was only in spirit form that Bomanz could see the defenses of the barrow clearly enough to manipulate and circumvent them."

"So should we plan on using spirit walking to explore the plain?"

"I don't think so. The plain is much larger, which would mean the spirit would be traveling much greater distances from the body and be away for much longer, greatly increasing the dangers of the technique. And it's never been a favorite technique of mine. My magical senses are fairly good without leaving my body. Perhaps being Taken helps with that."

"It seems to have a lot of advantages."

"Yes. Also, to be honest, being in my own body helps me remember who I am. There are occasional side effects to having so many captured souls within me. So I prefer not to leave my body, and I've never studied anything like Shapeshifter's techniques for transforming one's own body. If I need to be someone else, I never use more than illusions."

"Still, it's good to know about spirit walking. It's possible that some of our enemies might use such techniques. Perhaps the method by which Kina and the others on the plain (if Oracle is right that there are others) reach out to influence the world is spirit walking, or something related."

"That's an excellent thought. Well, rather obvious, really, but somehow I hadn't thought of it. Perhaps further evidence that something's been clouding my mind a bit? Or maybe I've just been too distracted. Anyway, I have an old amulet I recovered from one of the Circle of Eighteen that is supposed to repel spirit walkers. I'll try to strengthen the enchantment, and make similar amulets for you and Oracle, in case there is some spirit walking going on.

"I should also work on the wards around here," Soulcatcher continued. "Spirit walkers are notoriously difficult to stop, so I probably haven't done enough yet. Maybe Oracle has some ideas."

"I'll tell her you want to see her."

 **Tragavec** :

"Tonk has held," Howler reported, "and with the rainy season ending, work on the fortifications of Tonk and the other towns near Jaicur is going well. The Black Company has pulled back."

"That won't last. Lady's bringing a large new army southward. Still, they are unlikely to try to push through the fortified line. At this point they are much better off circumventing it."

"Which way will they go?"

"They will probably try to gather their forces somewhere to the east, and push south from there. West of our line is the delta, and I doubt they'll want to move their army through the swamps. They have more space to the east anyway. It's rougher terrain, though, so it'll be slower going."

"Should we extend the fortified line eastward?"

"No, there's no way we can fortify the entire front. And anyway we need to counter-attack at some point. I'm pleased with the forces I've been able to assemble over the past several months. Still, first there is unrest in the northeast; I will need to suppress some of the rebels."

At this point, they were interrupted as Howler was contacted by Longshadow. "We're summoned to Overlook," Howler reported when the contact was done.

"What's the reason for this pointless delay?" Mogaba asked. He wasn't looking forward to the carpet trip either.

"Longshadow wouldn't say." The two boarded Howler's carpet, and flew to report to their demanding boss.

 **Overlook** :

When Mogaba and Howler arrived in Longshadow's favorite tower room, they saw that the shadowmaster had another visitor. "Blade here has also decided that he can't work with Croaker, and has joined our cause."

"I particularly approve of your policy toward priests," the usually quiet man explained. "Even better than Lady's."

"This is a sudden change of heart," Mogaba said suspiciously.

"To be honest, Croaker kicked me out. He thought there was something going on between me and Lady."

"I've talked to Blade at length," Longshadow said, "and I'm quite confident his conversion is genuine. No need for you to interrogate him as well, Mogaba."

"As you wish. Why were we summoned here?"

"Blade will need an army to command. I've decided to put him in charge of forces in the east, and leave you in charge of the west. There are reports of rebellions in the east, so I want you to give Blade your oldest division so he can go put them down. You can continue to work on training the other divisions and raising more."

"You want me to give my best troops to someone who just joined our cause?"

"Again, I've established to my satisfaction that we can count on him, and I don't want to hear any more about that."

"If the enemy decides to make a serious push in the east, one division won't be enough," Mogaba said.

"That won't be a problem. According to Blade, Croaker and Lady have embarked on a campaign to exterminate the Deceivers. They won't be able to simultaneously launch a major assault on us. By the time they do, I assume you'll have many more troops assembled, right, General?" Longshadow asked Mogaba.

"If you are correct, then I suppose that's true."

"Howler, I'll supply you with some more shadows. Keep up the pressure on the enemy. And look for an opportunity to strike at Lady. Obviously, if we can take her out, our position will improve dramatically."

"And what will you do?"

Longshadow responded angrily. "As always, the completion of Overlook is the highest priority. And someone needs to train the shadows for the shadowweavers to use. Lady's powers may be returning, but she should still be no match for you. I am not impressed that you seem to feel the need to constantly ask for more help."

Since, as usual, Longshadow was completely inflexible, Howler took Mogaba and Blade back to Tragavec as ordered, so Blade could be given his division for the eastern campaign.

 **Dome** :

News of the war trickled in to Soulcatcher, and occasionally she gathered her lieutenants to pass on the news. Normally, only Oracle and Painter were kept informed; Soulcatcher seemed to have doubts about Shadowcat. The three met in a heavily warded meditation chamber.

"So, any news on the war?" Painter asked.

"Not as much as I'd like. I wish the new crows would grow up faster; they're not much use yet. But there also seems to be less fighting than expected. Since pulling back from Tonk, Croaker has not launched any new offensives. My sister has launched a major effort to exterminate the Deceivers, and of course get her daughter back, and apparently military action against Longshadow has become a secondary priority for the moment. And of course Croaker is doing what my sister wants."

"Is the lull in the fighting good or bad? I'm not sure I completely understand our own plans."

"Don't be modest, I'm sure you have guessed much. As we've already discussed, I am primarily interested in the plain of glittering stone. I want to learn its secrets, eliminate the threat it presents, and gain access to the power there. Longshadow has placed himself as the gatekeeper to the plain, and must be removed. But it would do no good to eliminate Longshadow and replace him with an equally inconvenient obstacle. I don't want the Black Company in Overlook either. I want it for myself. Overlook is an ideal base from which to conduct detailed investigation of the plain."

"That is as I had thought," Painter admitted. "So that means it is our goal for Longshadow's fortunes to decline, but not too quickly, as we don't want him to fall until we're prepared to replace him. And we're not quite prepared yet. Are we?"

"Precisely. But Longshadow may be doing too well at the moment. The Black Company has lost another officer; Blade has also gone over to Longshadow's side. He's not at Mogaba's level, but he's better than any of Longshadow's old officers, so his defection is still a gain for Longshadow. Then again, my sister's magic continues to return. If she manages to chase the Deceivers out of her territory, her forces may start to make some progress in putting pressure on Longshadow."

"We do seem to have a deadline," Painter commented. "It seems from what you've told me about Overlook that taking down Longshadow will become much more difficult, perhaps impossible, if he's allowed to finish the fortress."

"Nothing is impossible, but it is true that we don't want the fortress finished until it is ours. We have at most perhaps ten years, and that only if the pressure of the war steps up a bit so as to force him to divert some effort away from construction."

"Well, that is a lot of time. We'll have many of your new crows long before that. What other preparations do you think we need to make before we can move against Longshadow?"

"I have some thoughts, but I'm curious as to what ideas you and Oracle have."

"Well, from the stories of the siege of Jaicur and the other battles, it seems that the Lifetaker and Widowmaker armors that you and your sister made provided excellent protection. I presume you could also make magic weapons. I think you said it only took you a few days to make your version of the Lifetaker armor. Have you ever thought of making a set of such magic armors and weapons, and outfitting an elite guard with them? You could have the temple priests do some of the enchanting work, of course. It seems that warriors with such magical equipment could be very effective."

"Not a terrible thought. I suppose most wizards haven't even tried such things partly because they dislike putting any kind of power in the hands of others, even their minions. But it isn't just paranoia, I'm afraid. It is dangerous to place magical power in the hands of non-wizards, even if their loyalty is not in doubt. If they should happen to face sorcerous opposition, enemy sorcerers will be able to find ways to take control of that magical power and turn it against those seeking to wield it."

"I see."

"Also, we don't have much manpower, though perhaps that's something we should work on. We could scrape together a few hundred warriors if we recruited everyone remotely suitable in the valleys ruled from Dome. It would take a huge amount of effort to make magical arms and armor for even such a small force, and even if the magical gear made each one worth ten ordinary soldiers, our rivals outnumber the forces we could gather by far more than ten to one. So I think we need to focus on plans that don't require armies, or figure out a way to steal someone else's army."

"That makes sense."

"Still, I probably could be making more use of enchanted objects," Soulcatcher continued. "Perhaps magic armor for you or Oracle. Or even for some of the temple priests, at least the ones with more than negligible magical talent, though their loyalty remains highly questionable. For that matter, perhaps a few personal bodyguards for each of us could be outfitted with magical gear. As long as the bodyguards always keep close to their patron sorcerer, their patron should be able to prevent others from taking control of the magic. I don't know if it should be our highest priority. But I'll teach you a little bit about enchantment, and perhaps you can work on this project on your own when you have free time."

"Anyway, what about you, Oracle?" Soulcatcher asked. "You've been quiet during this discussion."

"I wanted to hear what Painter would come up with. But I've been thinking about what to do about Shadowcat."

"What about her?" Soulcatcher asked. "Do you have any thoughts about our newest recruit?"

"She really wants to be human again," Painter offered. "If you don't find a way soon to permanently remove the curse, I think she may decide to leave and try to find someone more helpful."

"Removing the curse would be very, very hard," Soulcatcher said. "And assuming the forvalaka form is not trivial magic; I worry that if the curse were removed, she wouldn't be able to voluntarily assume forvalaka form any more either. It's quite likely she could only do it with Shapeshifter's help. So I don't know if it would be worth the effort."

"Probably not," Oracle commented.

"Also, I found out a little of what the Black Company knew about her when I was impersonating my sister. They seem to think she's completely untrustworthy. Admittedly, they think the same of me, but they're not always wrong."

"But you must have known all this before you brought her in. So why did we recruit her at all?" Painter asked. "Because of the plan to revive Shapeshifter?"

"Obviously," Oracle said.

"That means we must be planning to revive Shapeshifter soon, before Shadowcat becomes more of a problem."

"Yes," Soulcatcher confirmed. "I'm not sure the timing is ideal, but on the other hand the sooner we do it, the more sincere I'll seem when I tell him I really wanted him back."

"All right. So we will want to recover as much as possible of the remains of Shapeshifter. I think my magic is good enough to locate and collect the remnants, since I'll have Shadowcat and she has that powerful curse connecting her to Shapeshifter."

"This might help as well," Soulcatcher said, offering Oracle Shapeshifter's staff.

"I expect it will."

"So, Oracle, you are on the Shapeshifter project. Painter, I have an errand of my own to run, and it may take some time, so I'm going to need you to keep an eye on the priests here in Dome."

"Understood. It will give me time to get started on the enchanting projects."


	8. Dry Season 2, part 2

**The Delta** :

Sifting through more of Moonshadow's memories, Soulcatcher had pieced together a few more details of the shadowmasters' early experiments with the shadowgate. Apparently they had been led there by people from the Great River delta, a tribe calling themselves the Nyueng Bao. The Nyueng Bao had legends of having come through the shadowgate centuries before, and made an occasional pilgrimage to the shadowgate in case of contact from the homeland of their ancestors. They claimed to have some sort of key to the shadowgate.

Whatever key the Nyueng Bao gave the shadowmasters didn't seem to work. Instead of allowing them to pass through, their efforts broke the shadowgate, and numerous shadows escaped. The shadowmasters fought them off, at some cost, and Longshadow was able to repair the gate somehow. This seemed to be the reason Longshadow was the only one who could supply shadows to the Shadowmasters.

But the story interested Soulcatcher. Did the Nyueng Bao have a genuine key? Or at least some knowledge of the shadowgate? Certainly the story seemed worth following up on, and so Soulcatcher made her way to the delta, to investigate these Nyueng Bao for herself.

She found the temple which Longshadow had visited, home to the priests who gave him the false key. She didn't want to attract the attention of her rivals and enemies, so she eschewed her usual costume and wore gray robes for her visit.

"I need to speak to the chief priest," she told one of the acolytes outside. He was initially reluctant to allow an obviously foreign woman access, but a few small displays of sorcery convinced him that the wisest course was to let the priest handle her.

Once she had her private meeting, the priest asked her business.

"You were visited several years ago by a powerful sorcerer, the one who now calls himself Longshadow, though I believe he told you another name at the time," she began. He didn't react, so she went on. "He was looking for an item. A key to the shadowgate, to the place where your people came from. And you gave him a fake. A good decision, by the way."

"How do you know all this?" the priest asked.

"That is not important. Longshadow is faring poorly in his war. He may become desperate, and return again to see if you really did have a true key and simply chose not to give it to him. Needless to say, if he discovers that truth, he won't be kind to you for having deceived him before."

"That's certainly possible, though there have been, as you say, many years during which he could have returned if he had been so inclined. It seems more likely that he's realized that there is no true key."

"Don't bother lying to me. And he hasn't been this desperate before. Furthermore, he may lose, in which case others may learn his secrets, and come here looking for the key. It is no longer safe here, if it ever really was."

"And where would it be safe?"

"Well, really, anywhere else would be safer as far as your people are concerned. If you give the key to me, I will use it to help rid the world of the shadowmaster threat. And nobody will have any further reason to bother your people in their peaceful swamp. And I can certainly reward you handsomely for your assistance."

"Do you really think that after our experience with Longshadow and his cronies, we would respond favorably to another practitioner of sorcery with eloquent words?"

"I suppose I did not expect it to be easy. But it is extremely important that the key not remain here, as it will inevitably fall into the wrong hands. Whatever your price, I can probably find a way to pay it."

"No price. This temple is open to all who seek wisdom, so we will not ask you to leave, but we cannot help you with your quest."

"I will stay a while, then. There is not unlimited time, but perhaps there will be enough for me to persuade you."

"That will, I fear, never happen."

"We shall see."

Soulcatcher remained at the temple for several weeks, making intermittent attempts to persuade the priest, which always went nowhere. She found it difficult to keep her voice constant, and when she accidentally spoke in another voice, she noted that it generated a good deal of suspicion. That would be a problem; she didn't want people to know she'd visited here, and tales of her strange manner of speaking might give her away.

Between what she overheard herself and what her crows brought her, she also quickly managed to learn the basics of the local language. Learning languages came easily to her, perhaps one of the benefits of her somewhat fragmented mind. With her presence, the priests were of course concerned about the security of their sacred artifact, and her spying and scrying eventually caught them dropping enough hints for her to work out where it was hidden. Once she was sure she knew how to find the item, she killed all the priests, to ensure that nobody would be able to report her visit to the swamp. In a deeply hidden corner of the temple, she found the false floor that concealed the key. It was a dull gray tool or weapon, resembling those used by the deceivers to break the bones of their victims and dig holes in which to bury the bodies. Soulcatcher had a very hard time sensing anything magical about it, but when she exerted herself to the limit extending her magical sensitivity, there was just the tiniest hint of something there. It was vaguely reminiscent of the Black Company's lance. She was sure that the priests had believed this to be the real key, and it seemed likely enough that they were right.

In the interests of thoroughness, she made another fake key and left it in the hiding place before she departed the swamp.

 **Near Jaicur** :

Oracle and Shadowcat did not particularly seem to enjoy one another's company; whenever Oracle exerted herself to give Shadowcat a little time in human form (something she did rarely, both because it required such exertion and because she didn't welcome Shadowcat's conversation), the young woman would go off on her own in preference to speaking with the old witch. But they both wanted to complete their mission, Shadowcat for her permanent cure, and Oracle because she didn't want to fail in her first major assignment from her new employer.

Having both the staff and Shadowcat proved more than sufficient for Oracle's powerful scrying abilities. She found that the dust containing the remnants of Shapeshifter's essence had generally not scattered very far; perhaps the essence somehow had worked to pull or hold itself together, via what remained of the mighty Taken's magic. Oracle was able to summon and gather the dust from her surroundings at the places where it had been scattered, and collected it into a jar.

She and Shadowcat had to visit many different places to gather up enough of the dust, as the Black Company had been fairly thorough in trying to scatter it. They had a little trouble avoiding Black Company patrols, but it seemed that the Black Company was devoting more effort to the central and eastern parts of the front that season, so they didn't run into any of the Black Company sorcerers. Mere soldiers Oracle could usually confuse and drive off, and if that proved insufficient, Shadowcat could easily slaughter them. They tried to avoid relying on that, though, as they didn't want the Black Company's attention to shift.

After several weeks, Oracle contacted Soulcatcher to report that she thought they'd gathered enough material. Soulcatcher told her to go to a small village near Cantile, find a host for Shapeshifter's essence to inhabit, and await her arrival.

 **Central Shadowlands** :

Soulcatcher had contacted Howler to request another meeting and a favor, and the two met up as she was on her way back from the swamps.

"Did you bring the carpet?" the witch asked. She'd been keeping her voice carefully consistent when pretending to be Lady, and later when visiting the Nyueng Bao. While she hadn't been able to maintain it perfectly for the entirety of the latter task, the discipline from playing the roles was starting to carry over into her Soulcatcher persona. Her voice changed less frequently, and more and more often she just sounded like a serious, determined woman, as now.

"Of course," Howler replied. "But I wonder why I should give it to you. Admittedly, you have helped me. But I've also noticed that sometimes you help the Black Company. But only sometimes. You are playing your own game, clearly. As you always did."

"Guilty as charged," she replied, "but I think you might like it better than Longshadow's game. As you must already think, since you've already been helping me."

"Granted. So that's why you're here?" Howler asked. "To recruit me for some conspiracy against the shadowmaster? I agree that he must go. But how? And when? And what will come after?"

"Tricky questions indeed," she laughed, briefly sounding like a playful little girl.

"I will warn you; he has taken steps to guard against betrayal," Howler explained. "The original shadowmasters damaged the shadowgate, and shadows would have flooded the world if Longshadow had not quickly resealed it. But he used his true name in making the seal. That's how he keeps his monopoly on providing shadows, why he's the only one who can let some out when he wants to. But if he dies, the seal will be broken, and the world will be overrun with shadows."

"Clever," she said, the serious voice returning. "So we have to somehow take him down without killing him. Or find a way to reseal the shadowgate very, very quickly after we kill him. That will complicate things."

"It will. But I am always looking for an opportunity," Howler continued, "and it will be easier if I can call upon your help. I will tell you if I see a chance for us to move. Of course, there remains the matter of your price."

"Howler, you were easily manipulated by Longshadow when he lured you here," Soulcatcher patiently explained. "When you were running your little swamp empire, you were unable to resist an attack by Shapeshifter on your home ground. I don't think you'd do very well as the sole shadowmaster." Howler found himself unable to both restrain himself from protesting and ignore his pain at the same time. He let out a scream of agony, but he let Soulcatcher continue without any other interruption. "I promise that unless you conceive some new plan to betray me, I have no plans to have you killed, so from your perspective having me replace Longshadow should be a considerable improvement. And I'll also promise to let you return to your swamps, or work for me, whichever you prefer, when I am shadowmaster. And if you work for me, I promise I'll take good care of you. But that's the deal. I'll help you get rid of Longshadow in exchange for your helping me take over his empire."

Howler screamed again. Reflecting on his unpleasant circumstances was not good for his self control. But if the offer had been any better, he would have known that Soulcatcher was lying. And the important thing was to get rid of Longshadow. And who knows, perhaps if he was lucky, circumstances afterward would leave him in a position to renegotiate? Not that he'd been lucky very often of late. "I accept your terms," the dirty little pile of rags finally announced. "But Longshadow is quite paranoid, and extremely well-protected. It may be some time before we have a chance to move."

"He feels safest in Overlook."

"For good reason."

"No doubt."

"And he hardly ever leaves there."

"True enough. It is probably best to strike him there, where he least expects it. But we would need to somehow gain access. This carpet will help, of course, but you need to create a weakness in Overlook's defenses through which I can enter. I think I will be able to arrange for other assistance as well."

"I spend very little time in Overlook, and most of that is meeting with Longshadow."

"The war goes too well for him. If the battles were happening further south, he would be more concerned about the defense of his fortress, and so he would likely have you spend more time there."

"Likely enough. Do you have a way to make the war go more poorly? I can help a little bit, but if I'm too ineffective he will of course become suspicious."

"The Black Company is resourceful; they may help us with that. And I have some ideas I can try. As for you, exaggerate my sister's strength in your reports to Longshadow, and use that as an excuse to avoid confronting her. Longshadow should find that easy to believe, and if you are leaving her unhindered, that should enable her forces to make great progress."

"I think I can do that. And I will, of course, tell you when I've managed to arrange access for you to Overlook." Howler gave her a folded up bundle of sticks and cloth, and flew off.

The little sorcerer continued to ponder the offer as he flew away from the meeting. It was clear that he needed to betray Longshadow, and it wasn't likely that Longshadow would ever leave himself vulnerable enough for Howler to move on his own. So the only alternative to working with Soulcatcher was working with the Black Company. But would they be any better? Would they even accept his help? Considering how that had turned out for Shapeshifter, Howler continued to feel that working with Soulcatcher probably was the best of his bad options.

Soulcatcher unfolded the bundle, assembling it into a duplicate of Howler's carpet. "I should be able to make these myself," she said in a petulant voice.

"But he does do excellent work," the scholar's voice commented. Soulcatcher gave her horse a command to return to Dome, and sent a message to Painter telling him where and when to retrieve the beast. She then rode the carpet toward Cantile.

 **Cantile** :

She arrived at a small village where Oracle had apparently taken over a house. "This jar contains as much of the dust from Shapeshifter's cremation as I was able to attract from the various locations where they scattered him," Oracle explained. "Together with the staff and Shadowcat, this should suffice."

Soulcatcher examined the jar, and performed some magic. "Yes, I think it will be enough. We still need a host for his essence to inhabit. Is that him?" she asked, gesturing at a sickly old man lying unconscious on a table.

"Yes. You'd said his condition didn't matter, as Shapeshifter would be able to reshape any body we put him in to his needs. But we should perhaps hurry, as this fellow may not last very long."

The ritual ended up taking several days. Soulcatcher didn't take any breaks; Taken physiology at work again. In the end, a dramatic change came over the old man, first in his expression and then quickly he transformed his appearance, his skin becoming much lighter (more like Soulcatcher's) and his wrinkles disappearing.

"Welcome back," Soulcatcher said. "You've had something of a hard time. As has your apprentice; I expect she'd appreciate your help."

The transformed man looked over at the cat, and waved his hand. A look of strain crossed his face, as if he hadn't expected it to be so difficult, but Shadowcat returned to her human appearance.

"I'm afraid it will take some time for you to fully recover and adapt to your new body," Soulcatcher commented. He noticed that oddly the voices she was using were all similar to one another, all feminine, instead of ranging all over as they usually did.

"I should have expected some recovery time. Soulcatcher? It's so strange to see you out of uniform." She was still wearing the robes from her visit to the swamp.

"I wore that working for the northern empires. I work for myself now, though it's taken me a while to abandon old habits."

"Why did you revive me? What do you want from me?"

She laughed. "Are we not old friends? How could I leave you in such a state? But I suppose I do think you owe me a favor now. Still, before the discussion gets so crass, you deserve an update on what has been happening."

"Let's see. I tried to kill Stormbringer, the fight went poorly, and we both ended up in a big fire thanks to your sister. And now I'm back thanks to you. How much time has passed?"

"A little over a year. But there's more to the story than that. The shadowmasters, the new friends Stormbringer had joined up with down here, draw their power from the plain of glittering stone. Had you learned about that before your final battle?"

"Not really. Why is it important?"

"Because there are one or more Dominator-like beings on the plain, trapped there, and influencing outside events the way the Dominator did when he was buried. Why were you so determined to go after Stormbringer? Why did you take such risks?"

"I wanted revenge for her betrayal at Charm," he said quickly.

"Really?"

"Well, that's what I thought at the time. Now that you come to question me about it, I'm not sure any more."

"Do you want to hear my theory?"

Shapeshifter nodded.

"One of the beings on the plain has been trying to get rid of great wizards. Stormbringer didn't come out of the fight any better than you did, and shortly thereafter Moonshadow and Shadowspinner were killed. I suspect that a being on the plain manipulated you and Stormbringer into taking one another out. And probably manipulated my sister into letting the Black Company burn you; I'd like to portray myself as the nice one and my sister as the murderous one, but you know both of us much better than that. Letting you die was out of character for her."

"I tried to tell you that your vendetta against that crazy storm bitch didn't make much sense," Shadowcat contributed.

"So if there's someone killing great wizards, you'd be on the list of targets as well," Shapeshifter said, ignoring his apprentice.

"Obviously."

"So that's why you wanted me back? An ally against the wizard-killer?"

"Ultimately, though I don't really know how to go after the wizard-killer yet. But perhaps with you around we can make more progress."

"Working for your sister didn't work out too well for me, and as you just admitted, you and your sister aren't that different."

"True, but at least I am honest enough to admit it. And I'm still the one who revived you, after she was the one who let you burn. I should get some credit for that."

"Fair enough. And I admit we did work well together, back in the day. So, fine, I owe you a favor. And if you're right that there's someone who wants both of us dead, of course I'm as concerned about that as you are. Do you have any more information?"

"Not much. Oracle is a native of this region, and says she's had some visions of our enemy."

"Well, maybe," Oracle said. "I've seen a huge, ill-maintained but still formidable fortress in the middle of a dead plateau. I've seen demons devouring one another on battlefields stinking of death. I've seen people frozen in caves of ice, with their eyes somehow showing life. And I've seen a giant, four-armed naked demoness, seeming to resemble the local legends of Kina. But I don't know how many of those visions were planted, things someone wanted me to see, or even just meaningless dreams."

Soulcatcher said, "the goal must be to investigate this plain of glittering stone, and learn about our enemy or enemies there. But Longshadow guards the gate, and while I don't think he's allied with the forces on the plain, he's impossible to work with. So he has to be removed first."

"Do you have a plan for that?" Shapeshifter asked.

"Not just yet, but when I do develop one, I'm sure your assistance will make it go more smoothly."

"Then that will be my favor. I will help you take out Longshadow when the time comes. In the mean time, I need to recuperate. And there are things I need to think about. It's not pleasant to know I've been manipulated so blatantly."

"Of course," Soulcatcher said. "We will be in touch." She left Shapeshifter his staff and apprentice, and took Oracle back to Dome on the carpet.


	9. Rainy Season 3, part 1

**Dome** :

When Soulcatcher and Oracle returned to Dome, Painter had considerable progress to report. "Longshadow is very unpopular with his people. It seems like we could cause him a lot of trouble by trying to stir up unrest. So I've been following Lady's example in producing inspiring characters, and trying to produce some outfits for an anti-shadow character, who I'm calling Lightbringer."

"Not terribly impressed with the name," Soulcatcher commented, "but it might not be a bad idea."

Painter showed her a mask, metal with a lining and with white lacquer on the face, with smoothed features and a shining jewel third eye. "This can be worn either on its own under hood of these robes I've prepared," he indicated bright yellow robes covered with white runes and symbols, "or attached to the helmet of the armor I had made," he indicated a suit of plate, with a bright metal shine and again covered with runes. "Everything is covered with the best protections I could manage against both physical and magical attack, but I'm sure you could greatly improve them."

"They're definitely different."

"Well, you were worried about your enemies knowing what you were up to. This enables you to take some actions that they hopefully won't associate with you. I used your Lifetaker armor to figure out the size for the plate armor. It might be a good idea to make another suit or two, to fit Oracle or myself, with illusions of course so that we don't actually look different, so we can play the role as well if needed."

Soulcatcher examined some of the runes and wards on the gear. "Not bad, but it will certainly require more work."

"I also made a bow. It should imbue any arrows it fires with light, and hopefully make them some use against shadows. But I'm much less sure that will actually work. I remembered that you do know how to use a bow, but that again it's not something that's usually associated with you."

"Reasonable," Soulcatcher commented. She examined the bow. "But I'm afraid I'll probably have to redo this. Still, a good effort. And you should make some Soulcatcher armor for yourself, so you'll be better protected when you try to play me. Include illusions to make you look like me, so you don't have to expend the effort keeping those up. Maybe Oracle can help you as well."

"Neither illusions nor enchanting are specialties of mine," Oracle said, "but I may be able to contribute slightly. It's always good to include wards against scrying and enemy magic generally, and perhaps I can improve on Painter's efforts in those areas."

"That would certainly be appreciated," Painter said. "By the way, the priests were pretty well behaved while you were gone. I think we have them under control; it may soon be possible to leave them on their own for short periods, if there's ever a need for all of us to be out and about simultaneously."

"Good to know. I suppose they had to learn eventually."

"What were you up to on your errand, anyway?" Painter asked.

"Acquiring a flying carpet, for one thing," Oracle said.

"Yes. Howler made that for me. He's providing some inside help with Longshadow. We need to find ways to make Longshadow do worse in the war. Your Lightbringer idea may help, of course, Painter, and Howler has promised to do what he can to undermine the effort without giving himself away."

"We could also take out enemy leaders." Oracle suggested.

"Well, taking out Longshadow is the goal, but he's too well protected for the moment. Howler, of course, is on our side. I think Mogaba could be brought over to our side once Longshadow is removed, and he could be very valuable to us."

"Hmmm."

"That only leaves Blade. And I don't think he's very important to Longshadow's efforts; removing him would probably just increase Mogaba's authority. Besides, if Blade really did have an affair with my sister, he's a reminder to them of a sore spot between them. And I wouldn't want to deprive my sister of that unpleasant reminder."

"As you wish."

"Killing shadowweavers is an option, though. That would hinder Longshadow, and honestly they're not valuable enough that converting them to our side eventually is an overriding priority."

"Worth pursuing. And I guess the other direction to look at for hurting Longshadow is finding ways to help the Black Company."

"Yes. But it's rainy season now; not good for campaigning in any event. We should prepare to have Lightbringer support some rebellions in the shadowlands; perhaps you could try to scout out some likely towns where there's a lot of opposition, Painter? But it's not urgent, and neither is the Black Company. I have another errand of my own, because the last one succeeded; I'm going to be investigating the plain of glittering stone personally. I've found a way in."

"Will that be safe?" Painter asked.

"Certainly not, but I can take care of myself. While I'm gone, Oracle, you need to keep an eye on Shapeshifter. Use the crows and whatever scrying methods you have. I want to know what he's going to get up to now that he's back. Try not to be too obvious, of course; he surely expects us to watch him, but we don't want to antagonize him, so try not to be rude about it."

"Understood."

"And Painter, it seems you have enough projects. Thanks to the carpet, I probably won't be gone long."

 **The Plain of Glittering Stone** :

The Dandha Presh mountains that ran along the eastern side of the shadowlands curved westward in the south, separating the southern part of the shadowlands, where Longshadow had always been based, from the rest. There was only one usable pass between the southern shadowlands and the central regions, at Charandaprash. Soulcatcher's crows reported that Longshadow, in his paranoia, had already started setting up a garrison there. The air was too thin to fly over the mountains. She could conceal herself, and was going to need to count on that when she got near Overlook, but there was no need to press her luck. The mountains didn't go on forever. As they ran west, they shrank into hills as they entered the desert, the Shindai Kus, eventually disappearing completely near the ocean. So the risk of being spotted flying over the pass, while small, could be eliminated by taking the long way around, going all the way west to the desert. With the carpet, it meant that she would take two days to get to the plain instead of only one. It seemed a reasonable price to pay.

There was, however, no way around Overlook. Soulcatcher flew to the edge of the strange, low plateau south of Overlook, stopping out of sight of the fortress. The sides of the plateau were not very steep; it looked like someone could simply walk up them, no climbing required, anywhere around the edge of the plain. The magical barrier around the plain was close to the bottom of the slope.

Soulcatcher used her crows to scout, as usual. Fortunately, Overlook continued to have the same bare minimum garrison. The wall facing the shadowgate didn't even have construction crews, as that part of the fortress was finished. Defending against threats from the plain was the main purpose of the fortress, and so construction efforts had reflected that priority. The only concern, really, was Longshadow himself, who had a strange habit of spending hours in the tallest of his towers, staring at the plain, watching for trouble.

Longshadow had taken to trying to kill off crows, since he suspected that they had been used as spies in the past, but Soulcatcher had had them minimize suspicious behavior, and so it seemed that over time the crows had drifted down on Longshadow's list of priorities. As a result, Soulcatcher was able to watch for a time when it seemed Longshadow had left his tower, perhaps to actually sleep for a bit. It was early morning, which was perfect; it meant the maximum possible time before she would have to worry about shadows. She surrounded herself with the best concealment magic she could manage, to further minimize risk, and flew to the edge of the strange, low plateau behind Overlook.

It took a little time to even find the shadowgate. At one time, it appeared that there had actually been a fortified gatehouse at the entrance to the plain, but that was so long ago that she missed the ruins the first couple of times she went by. Once she had the right general area, her magical senses, with the help of the key, located the actual entrance.

It seemed that it was probably possible to enter the plain at other points besides the gate, but it would require effort to get through the magical barrier, and would leave a gap in the barrier that shadows could escape through. At least with the key, passing through the gate was effortless, and had no effect on the magical barriers. The gate was at the beginning of a magical pathway within the plain, which seemed to have some protection against shadows. However, Soulcatcher could see the damage the shadowmasters had done to the gate, and it looked like damage to the gate would also ruin the protection at the end of the path, so that shadows could get through. It did look like Longshadow's patch had restored the protection of the path, but Soulcatcher wasn't going to count on that. She had her carpet, after all, and shadows couldn't fly. Thus, as soon as she was through the gate, she took to the air.

As she flew above the edge of the plateau, she saw how the place had gotten its name. It was a flat, nearly featureless stone plain, and the stone did indeed glitter. There were no living things to be seen anywhere. Soulcatcher did see columns here and there on the plain, with writing she could not decipher. She considered trying to copy some of the text for later analysis, but decided to postpone that project.

She continued southward and flew higher. Eventually, she could see a vast structure in the distance. It appeared to be more or less at the center of the plain, maybe sixty miles from the shadowgate. As she grew closer, she could see that it was a fortress. The walls were not as tall as those of Overlook but it was perhaps even larger in its horizontal dimensions. It seemed to be poorly maintained, but it had not fallen into ruin. It looked as if it were recently abandoned, or perhaps as if it were being kept up by someone too lazy to fix any but the most severe problems.

In the center of the fortress was a huge dome. The area under the dome constituted much of the interior of the fortress; the dome was perhaps a mile across, and so obviously held up by magic. There were a couple of holes in the dome, enabling light to enter, and enabling Soulcatcher to look in.

Below the dome was a huge circle, which seemed to be a scale model of the plain. In the center of this huge circle was a smaller circle, which seemed, redundantly, to be another scale model of the plain, on a smaller scale. Finally, atop the small circle was a huge throne. It was difficult to judge scale in such a bizarre place, but it was definitely meant for a being far larger than a human. And just such a giant occupied the throne. Daggers were thrust through its hands, securing them to the arms of the throne, and daggers had also been thrust through its legs to hold it in place.

Soulcatcher could sense an immense magical strength in the giant. Much more than a Taken; closer to the power of her former lover, the Dominator. She couldn't tell if the giant was aware of her presence or not, but it seemed to be alive, or at least active in some sense. It didn't look much like any of the representations or descriptions of Kina, and neither did it feel very much like magic she'd felt around the Kina temple in the Grove of Doom. Perhaps this was one of the other beings Oracle had hypothesized.

Soulcatcher decided that approaching the giant was probably not something to rush into, however passive it might appear. She looked around for other entrances to the fortress, and was able to find a doorway into one of the towers guarding the outer walls.

The rooms and apartments in the towers and within the outer walls seemed to be endless. The population of a city could have lived there, if they could have found any way to feed themselves on the desolate plain. But the fortress was completely devoid of inhabitants, apart from the giant at the center. It also seemed as if it had been looted, or perhaps whoever had last inhabited it had taken almost everything with when they left. Still, Soulcatcher found a few artifacts here and there. Most interestingly, as she checked room after room, she would very occasionally come upon a few books or scrolls. Most were in totally unfamiliar languages, but a tiny handful seemed to be in scripts related to those she was familiar with, and she gathered those for future study, placing preserving magic on them to transport them safely.

She had barely made any progress in exploring the vast fortress when night began to approach. She decided that she really needed to spend more than a single day exploring here. If worst came to worst, she could just fly all night, but first she was curious as to whether the fortress had any protection against the shadows, as the roads had seemed to have. The giant wasn't really evidence either way, as she wasn't sure even a shadow could harm the thing. Nor was she sure that the giant counted as alive for the purposes of the shadows' innate desire to kill.

So she set up a small camp on top of one of the towers, setting wards to provide some protection and warning against shadows, and waiting on her carpet so she could leave if things got bad. As she'd hoped, it turned out that the shadows apparently couldn't enter the fortress. At least, none bothered her, though she saw thousands of them milling about on the plain during the night.

The next morning, she continued her hunt through the peripheral chambers and apartments, turning up a few additional texts. It took a few days before she had as many of those as she thought she could comfortably take back with her on her carpet. She still hadn't explored more than a tiny fraction of the outer fortress.

It was more likely than not that the texts would turn out to be useless; she didn't know for certain that she'd ever be able to decipher any of them, and since she certainly couldn't read them now, she couldn't know for certain that any of them contained anything valuable, as opposed to accounting ledgers or love poetry or something equally pointless. She didn't want the trip to turn out to have been a total waste of time, so she decided to investigate the center of the fortress before she left.

The giant continued to show no sign of awareness of her presence. When she actually landed on the floor, she thought she could sense some magic in the circles. They seemed to have some sort of link to the plain outside. She also saw, on one side of the room, a huge spiral staircase leading down.

It looked like the staircase went down for a mile or more, and even from the top of it Soulcatcher could sense a little bit of familiar magic. If Kina was here, she was probably at the bottom of that staircase. Soulcatcher cautiously proceeded downward, staying alert to any magical disturbances.

She found that as the staircase went down, it connected to several different cross passages, leading to caves or underground excavations. In one of them, she found chambers filled with ice, containing people who seemed to be frozen, but who showed signs of life when Soulcatcher examined them with her magic. Oracle had mentioned dreams about such people; apparently her visions had been genuine. None of them seemed to be of any importance, though. She certainly didn't sense any magic comparable to the giant or to Kina in any of them. A few were probably mages, but of those she checked, none even seemed comparable to Oracle.

There were also rooms full of various artifacts and treasures, but Soulcatcher already had her full load of books to take back, so she didn't have much interest in those at the moment; she'd have to investigate more closely during future expeditions. As she made her way down the staircase, the sense of Kina's presence grew stronger, and eventually Soulcatcher decided it was probably best to turn back. She had learned a decent amount. She'd found that there were at least two powers on the plane, Kina and the giant. There could very well be more, of course, in unexplored parts of the fortress or the caves underground, but actually locating those two made the situation no longer a matter of pure speculation. And maybe Soulcatcher would be lucky and there would actually be something in the texts.

She had no more trouble with Longshadow's fortress on the way out than she had had on the way in. Longshadow really wasn't keeping as careful a watch on the plain as one might have expected from his paranoia. Then again, he was most concerned about shadows, and Soulcatcher wasn't one of those. Soulcatcher again took the long way around, through the desert, on her way back to Dome.

 **Dome** :

Upon returning home, Soulcatcher found her part of the temple a little bit more crowded. She questioned Painter and Oracle about the new additions.

"Well, it occurred to us that while the priests recruited any magically talented men in the area, there were likely to be a comparable number of magically talented women," Painter explained.

"Yes, I was able to track down several gifted women," Oracle said. "I decided not to bother with the older women, with families and children; older people don't learn as fast, and their families would be a distraction anyway. But we found a few girls who weren't old enough to be married yet."

"They seemed enthusiastic enough about studying magic, and it only took modest bribes for their families to be content with letting us have them," Painter continued.

"Having more people with magical talent will help, and they'll surely be more loyal than the priests," Soulcatcher admitted. "Though providing magical training will eat into your time in the short term. It's a reasonable trade off. In case I need to talk to any of them, what are they called?"

"The oldest is Destiny, the tall one is Dawn, and the youngest is Dagger."

"I suppose names aren't really important."

"Oh, and one more thing. About Dagger. In talking to her, I've discovered that she has dreams of becoming a great warrior."

"Well, magic can help with fighting. Though being a witch should be exciting enough."

"Yes, magic can help with fighting. In fact, I was wondering if we could use magic to make her bigger and stronger. I know with the animals it seems to work best to alter them when they're very young, but I thought with people with magical talent, there was more flexibility on that score. And she is the youngest of the recruits anyway. Of course, we can teach her to use magic on herself, but you and Oracle could also apply some of your own power to the project."

"Yes, that could certainly be done. We could make a female Bonegnasher. Though I think without the crocodile head."

"Bonegnasher?"

"Another of the Taken. He used magic to make himself into a monster, a giant of immense strength. And, for some reason, he gave himself the head of a crocodile. Or maybe that was a curse he was under; I never asked him about it. Anyway, the animal head seems a needless addition to the giant warrior idea. Which we will certainly employ. By the way, I hope this project hasn't distracted you two from other priorities."

"Not at all," Oracle replied. "I have been keeping a close eye on the recently awakened one. It seems that he and Shadowcat are heading north. Their destination is Cho'n Delor. I'm not familiar with the place."

"It's a ruin, the former capital of the Paingod, centuries ago," Soulcatcher offered. "I've heard a tiny bit about it, because the Black Company worked for the Paingod until he was defeated in the Pastel Wars."

"Hmmm. I wonder why they're going to a ruin. I haven't seen anything informative, I'm afraid."

"There are a number of possibilities." Soulcatcher stopped paying attention to Oracle as she tried to work it out for herself. "The ruin is overrun with spirits, and dangerous magical residues, even after all this time."

"That might have kept looters away. Perhaps Shapeshifter hopes to find that the Paingod left behind some valuable treasures," a greedy man's voice said.

"Possible. But I've never heard that the Paingod had anything exceptional," she said in the voice of a scholar.

"Maybe his interest is in the spirits that haunt the place? Does he plan to try to take control of some of them, to turn them to his own purposes? Minions of his own to match up against the shadows?" she whispered.

"It's strange that nobody else has done that," the serious voice commented. "They must be unusually hard to control. I wonder why Howler didn't explore Cho'n Delor when he was living so near there."

"Well, he was never all that brave," a girl's voice said, "and he had plenty of human minions in his swamp."

"And perhaps he did explore it," a baritone voice said. "Why would he have mentioned it?"

"Of course, Shapeshifter may just figure that the spirits and dangerous magic will keep everyone else away. Maybe Shapeshifter just wants a place where nobody will disturb him," the serious voice mused.

"I suppose we won't know until he gets there." Soulcatcher returned her attention to Oracle. "Keep watching him whenever you get the chance."

"Of course."

"Now, I'm sure you both want to know about the plain." Soulcatcher briefly summarized her trip, describing the fortress, the giant, and the probable location of Kina. "I would like to see if I can make some sense of these texts, to see if they'll give me any ideas for what I should focus on next time I go down there. Oracle, do any of the scripts look remotely familiar with you? Or will I have to do all the deciphering myself?"

Oracle looked through some of the scrolls and books. "A couple of them are written in relatives of languages I've come across, but even in those I can guess at maybe one word in twenty. The rest are gibberish to me."

"Well, take the ones that look vaguely familiar, and see if you can make any progress on them. I'll make a quick trip to Taglios, and see if there are any really old books there that might be intermediate between these texts and languages we're familiar with, as that might provide clues for how to translate some things."

"Maybe you should kidnap a few scholars while you're at it. I'd suggest using the priests, but they have plenty of work to do with enchanting the crows. And they're not very trustworthy."

"Worth considering, certainly. Painter, you have some apprentice training to do, as well as working on enchanting Lightbringer gear, unless that's all finished?" He shook his head. "Well, no rush. Oh and you should get a foal or two and have the priests work on raising some enchanted horses. Having only one is going to start being a little limiting, even with the carpet as well. And the Charm horse won't last forever in any event." Soulcatcher dismissed her lieutenants and rested for a while before departing for Taglios.


	10. Rainy Season 3, part 2

**Dome** :

Soulcatcher returned from Taglios with a few books and one terrified looking scholar. She also had a bamboo tube, which she'd stolen from a Black Company soldier and which she showed to Painter and Oracle. She demonstrated how it worked, pointing one end at the ground and turning a crank at the other end; a fireball flew at the ground and actually dug its way in a bit.

"The fireballs are very inaccurate, but they do a lot of damage. My sister designed them for use against shadows, and they are especially damaging to such foes. The fireballs are also attracted to shadows, making the lack of accuracy less of an issue."

"Impressive!" Painter said. "Should we have the priests make some of our own?"

"We talked before about the wisdom of providing magical weapons to non-wizards. These are no exception. On the other hand, a shadow-seeking fireball seems like a fairly useful spell; we should probably have everybody learn that. Well, everybody who's going to be getting into fights. I'm not sure if the priests should learn this one."

"Hmmm. Since the fireballs are magically guided in flight, it ought to be possible to misdirect them," Oracle suggested.

"Good thought. Another minor enchanting project, then. Amulets or something that will divert fireballs like these away from the wearer, in case anybody ever tries to use weapons like this against us. In any event, my sister is producing these in great quantities, and they are drastically reducing the effectiveness of the shadows. I expect that they're going to make a lot of progress once the rainy season ends and they start campaigning again."

"Well, unless Longshadow and Howler devise some way to counter these weapons," Painter commented.

"It seems like the sort of job Longshadow would delegate to Howler. To devise an effective counter himself, Longshadow would probably have to go out and observe how the weapons were being used in action, and he isn't going to leave Overlook to do that. And, of course, Howler doesn't want to find a way to counter the weapons, since he's on our side. The weapons give him a good excuse for losing."

"Good news, then."

"How are the students doing?"

"Fine. They're all quite enthusiastic."

"And what of Shapeshifter, Oracle? He and Shadowcat can both move pretty quickly. Have they reached Cho'n Delor?"

"Yes, and that's made it harder to watch them, as the crows don't like the place. But I'll report whatever I am able to learn."

 **Cho'n Delor** :

The ruin was heavily overgrown, though Shapeshifter and Shadowcat saw few animals. Apparently even animals wouldn't stay there at night, and only a few brave ones would wander in during the daytime. Shapeshifter found an old stone building that hadn't completely collapsed. It had originally been a huge, probably important structure, and it had a basement. He was able to locate a large room with only one entrance. He ordered Shadowcat to clear out the room while he set up wards.

When night fell, ghostly presences began to circulate. They were very hard to see, and hard to describe even when they could be seen. Shapeshifter didn't sleep the first few nights, as he had to hold them off himself while he was setting up his defenses. Shadowcat didn't sleep much either, at least during the night. Shapeshifter had her work on cleaning the place out and making it into a usable work area.

Once he was satisfied with the wards, Shapeshifter set up a trap, and brought one of the ghosts into his protective chamber. He spent several days tormenting the spirit with a wide array of spells, and eventually broke and bound it to his satisfaction. He set the spirit as a guard to his improvised base, and finally got some rest himself.

By this time, they were running low on food, so now that their improvised home was protected to Shapeshifter's satisfaction, the two went to Idon. In addition to gathering supplies, Shapeshifter sought people to do some of the menial work setting up his new home. Offered the choice of death or Cho'n Delor, a surprising proportion of people from Idon chose death, but Shapeshifter was able to draft a few. They helped him restore the building he and Shadowcat occupied, as he worked on expanding the wards and compelling more spirits to serve. It usually didn't take long for one of the human servants to make a mistake and be killed by one of the dangerous local spirits or magics, but they were, of course, easily replaced.

After several weeks, the building looked a lot less ruined, and Shapeshifter had several spirit guardians isolating the place from the surrounding dangers. Shadowcat still found it a bit lonely, with the low survival rate of the human servants, but it had become a secure base from which to conduct further exploration of the vast ruined city.

 **Howler** :

Although Soulcatcher was focused on the plain and on the Shapeshifter revival, and the Black Company was distracted by the campaign against the Deceivers, the war did continue. In the west, Croaker's forces faced the defensive network Howler had set up. In Taglios, the priesthood had reconstituted itself, and the replacements of the priests Lady had killed were recruiting their own forces to operate independently of the Black Company, which they continued to view with hostility. The forces recruited by the priests had taken to operating in the east, where they could be away from the Black Company, and where they could fight Blade, whose attitude toward priests was well known. In the center, Lady most frequently directed the Black Company's efforts, and faced forces under the command of various minor shadowland officers. Willow Swan and Cordy Mather continued to expand and strengthen a personal guard for the Radisha, which they kept back in Taglios as a reserve.

Blade had successfully put down most of the rebellions in the east, but the distraction they provided had prevented him from advancing. On the other hand, the armies led by the priests hadn't had much luck against him either. In the west, Howler's fortifications held up well against Croaker's probes, and he kept making them stronger. Of course, Croaker's forces kept growing larger and more experienced as well. In the center, Lady's forces had made some slight progress during the previous dry season, whenever she'd taken time away from the Deceiver hunt to lead them, so there was a small Black Company salient protruding into the central shadowlands.

The campaigning had slowed further with the coming of the rainy season, but Howler had noticed another very disturbing development. Losses of shadows had increased dramatically, both around the salient and in the skirmishing near Howler's fortified line. Reports from Blade's units suggested that they had not been experiencing anything similar. It was clear that the Black Company must have some new anti-shadow weapon, probably devised by Lady, whose powers continued to increase.

Howler discussed the developments with Mogaba. "This needs to be reported to Longshadow. Without shadows, the situation will deteriorate quickly, and he won't take it well if he finds out we didn't report the problem."

"You think Lady is the source of the new anti-shadow weapon?"

"She's the only really major wizard they have."

"What about Soulcatcher? Could she be helping them?"

Howler thought that if it was Soulcatcher, she'd have told him about the new weapon. But he wasn't quite yet ready to try to recruit Mogaba for the anti-Longshadow conspiracy. "That's also possible, of course. She's been elusive; our scouts have encountered no sign of her. Regardless, the reports suggest that the weapon has its limits; it should be possible to overwhelm it with numbers. We just need to persuade Longshadow to provide me with more shadows. It would help if you would join me; both of us together may have a slightly better chance of bringing him to see reason."

"I suppose. I still don't like those shadows, but I admit that things haven't been going well even with them. But if Lady is the problem, what we really need is to eliminate her. If Blade and I attacked the salient from opposite sides, I'm sure we could encircle and destroy Lady's division, and you and your shadows could hunt down Lady herself. But Longshadow won't give me any authority over Blade, and Blade insists on wasting his time slaughtering priests in the east."

"I will, of course, support your recommendation, so long as you support mine. We should proceed to Overlook at once."

Mogaba reluctantly joined Howler for the carpet ride, and soon they had their audience with the shadowmaster.

"I suppose it must be bad news, or you wouldn't have come here," Longshadow commented. "Before we get to that, I have some good news, though. Some of the top Deceivers have offered their services to us, in hopes that we can offer them refuge, and that together we can defeat the Black Company. They should provide us with better intelligence, as well as possibly enabling us to take out a few key enemy leaders."

"Their dwindling numbers may diminish their effectiveness," Mogaba commented.

"Their leader has their Daughter of Night with him. Lady and Croaker's girl. She shows signs of powerful magic. There may eventually be a way to exploit her," Longshadow continued, undeterred by Mogaba's pessimism.

"All right, so we've acquired a magical baby, and a dwindling number of spies and assassins." Howler howled before continuing. "On the subject of dwindling numbers of spies and assassins, I'm sure you've heard that we're losing shadows at an alarming rate. I suspect Lady has developed a new weapon."

"Didn't I tell you to eliminate her?" Longshadow asked testily.

"Her powers continue to return, and she has an increasingly experienced army protecting her. And you continue to refuse to provide me with the quantity of shadows I've said are needed. I hope you will at least deign to provide replacements for our recent losses."

"If you provide us with the shadows, and allow me to coordinate with Blade in a joint counter-attack on the salient, we can regain lost territory, and if we're lucky we may catch Lady in a trap," Mogaba offered.

"The track record of failures suggests that it would be very foolish to put all our eggs in one basket. If we were to devote the majority of our forces to a single objective, there's the danger that the Black Company will do as they've done over and over again, and take the opportunity to destroy the majority or entirety of the committed forces."

"None of the disasters have been under my leadership," Mogaba patiently pointed out.

"I think Mogaba's plan looks reasonable," Howler offered, "though I think we would need a lot of shadows to have a good shot at Lady. She seems to be getting disturbingly close to her old self. And I also was not involved in the earlier disasters."

"Your overconfidence does nothing to increase my trust in you. But I will increase the supply of shadows to replace the losses. It would help, of course, if you could figure out some way to counter the anti-shadow weapon, whatever it is. And keep looking for chances to deal with Lady. Mogaba, your job is to make sure our armies are strong enough to keep the Black Company away until Overlook is completed. Continue with the raising and training of armies at Shadowlight."

Mogaba and Howler continued to discuss matters after returning to Shadowlight. "It's almost as if he doesn't want to win the war," Mogaba complained. "He seems to offer a plan for losing slowly. What good will Overlook do him if he has no armies or territories left?"

"I'm afraid I have a thought," Howler said. "Overlook is designed to hold off any kind of attack, but it is especially focused on keeping out shadows. When all the walls are up, and all of the enchantments on them are completed, no shadows, no matter how large or how numerous, will have any chance of getting in. I suspect that once Overlook is finished, he plans to open the shadowgate, and let all the hordes of shadows from the plain destroy all of his enemies at once."

"But that would leave him ruler of a wasteland, at best."

"Indeed. And even if you were one of those he allowed to hide in Overlook with him, who would remain to remember your military prowess?"

"I hope you are wrong about what he plans."

 **Dome** :

The translation of the texts proceeded very slowly, and as Soulcatcher had feared, they didn't seem to contain much information. They did learn that the giant at the center of the fortress was called Shivetya by some, but none of the texts had anything useful to offer about his nature.

The most interesting thing the translators discovered was that there were apparently other shadow gates on the plain, and they all lead to different worlds. There was one mention of 16 gates, but only two other worlds seemed to be described anywhere in the texts Soulcatcher had brought back. One was supposed to be home to a powerful Kina cult; perhaps it was the location of the Khatovar from which the Free Companies were supposed to have originated. Another was called, at least by one author, "the land of unknown shadows;" there was no explanation of what this name might mean.

The enchanting projects, on the other hand, went well, and Painter approached Soulcatcher with another idea.

"The progress with Dagger has me thinking about magical ways to enhance people generally," Painter began. "The Taken seem to be vastly more powerful than ordinary humans. How exactly was that done? And is there any way to bestow similar powers to new people?"

"You want to be Taken?"

"I wouldn't mind being immortal, no. And if it increased my magical power, I would be able to do more for you, of course."

"And you wouldn't be able to defy me. I'd have power over you eternally."

"I've chosen my side."

"I see. Well, unfortunately, it is not at all easy. Dominator was far more powerful than I am. I could not give anyone the kind of power that he gave me."

"But you said Lady made some Taken."

"True. Second-rate Taken. And Longshadow made Smoke into a third-rate Taken. In the case of Smoke, I think the only effect was that he could not defy Longshadow. Apart from that, he was probably weaker after Longshadow's efforts rather than stronger."

"Surely you can do better than Longshadow. What were Lady's Taken like?"

"They were all very powerful wizards before she performed her ritual. I actually never encountered any of them in person, but from the reports I've heard, I didn't see any evidence that she made them more powerful magically. They might have been harder to kill, but then powerful wizards generally are hard to kill, and they certainly did not compare in that respect to Taken. The Black Company's description of Feather's death made it sound like she was easier to kill than Shadowspinner or Moonshadow."

"Do you think you could do better than Lady?"

"Boldly phrased! But that's what I keep you around for. Honesty is valuable. I do not think that I am more powerful than my sister was at her height. Still, she was not Taken. That might give me an advantage in performing the ritual. And perhaps making the subjects stronger wasn't actually a goal of hers. Over time, we Taken did find ways to loosen the Dominator's grip on us, and to defy him in small, or eventually even in not so small, ways. She expected to live forever, so she may have deliberately wanted to make weaker Taken in order to reduce the risk of them ever turning against her."

"I take it that you've never attempted to make any new Taken yourself."

"That's true, that isn't something I have attempted. This calls for experimentation. Since it does produce improved loyalty, can you recommend one of the priests who is above average in magical talent and also above average in terms of concerns about possible disloyalty?"

"Hmmm. Summer, er, the Elder Adept of the Bright Noon Summer Sun is, I think, his full title, might be what you are looking for."

Soulcatcher took several days to prepare, and also discussed the project with Oracle, who had a few suggestions based on her unusually keen magical perceptions. Eventually she had Painter summon Summer, on the pretense that he was needed for a task that would take some time.

The ritual took several days, with Painter stopping in to watch whenever he could. It was fairly disturbing; Soulcatcher had surrounded the room with silence spells to prevent the screams from troubling the rest of the compound. It seemed like Summer died and was brought back to life more than once in the course of the procedure. He was certainly brought very close to death over and over again. And he was not allowed any rest at all; if he ever passed out, he was always awakened before the ritual continued. Apparently he needed to be conscious for every agonizing instant in order for it to work properly.

Finally, Summer was sent back to his fellow priests to rest, after being told not to talk about what had happened. Soulcatcher explained the results to Painter. "At the end, he was standing up to the abuse quite a bit better than he had been at the start. So I think I did make him tougher, though I'm sure he's not immortal. His magical talent may also have improved slightly; you'll have to keep him under observation to see if there are any signs of that. But I don't think the effects were dramatic."

"I see."

"Don't look so disappointed! It was probably worth it to have at least one priest that we can actually be sure is trustworthy. And it was the first time I've done this. I have some thoughts on how the ritual might be strengthened, though mostly they would involve more preparation and probably access to some additional resources. Of course, you wouldn't want it used on you until we're sure we can do it right."

"Of course." What he'd seen of the ritual made him wonder if it would be worth it even for immortality, but he had been the one to bring it up. And he would only have to go through it once.

"We'll try another experiment when I've had time to think about what to do differently next time."


End file.
